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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Getty  Research  Institute 


https://archive.org/details/japaneseartOOhart_O 


JAPANESE  ART 


Art  Lovers’  Series 

s 

The  Madonna  in  Art 
Christ  in  Art 
Angels  in  Art 
Saints  in  Art 

Heroines  of  the  Bible  in  Art 
Child  Life  in  Art 
Love  in  Art 
Shakespeare  in  Art 
Music  in  Art 
Japanese  Art 

A  History  of  American  Art.  2  vols. 
Beautiful  Women  in  Art.  2  vols. 

L„  C.  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
200  Summer  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 


I 


Shunso.  —  Typical  IVoman  of  the  Ukio-ye  School  (See 
page  1 13)  v 


V 


JAPANESE  ART 


By 

SADAKICHI  HARTMANN 
Author  of 

“  A  History  of  American  Art,”  “  Shake¬ 
speare  in  Art,”  etc. 


Illustrated 


BOSTON 

L.  C.  PAGE  &  COMPANY 
MDCCCCIV 


Copyright ,  iqog 
By  L.  C.  Page  &  Company 

(incorporated) 

All  rights  reserved 


Published  September,  1903 


Colonial  Press 

Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  C.  H.  SImonds  &  Co. 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


Mokke  — A  Tiger. 


THE  MEMORY  OF 

JHp  ^[HntJjer. 


PREFACE 


N  compiling  this  book  for  publi¬ 
cation,  its  purpose  should  be 
clearly  understood.  It  is  not  so 
much  a  book  for  experts  and  connoisseurs 
—  too  much  has  been  written  in  that 
strain  —  but  for  those  persons  who  would 
like  to  become  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  Japanese  Art,  but  have  been  deterred 
from  doing  so  by  the  want  of  a  book  which 
would  accomplish  this,  without  obliging 
them  to  turn  specialists. 

This  is  the  first  history  of  Japanese 
Art  which  attempts  to  popularize  the  sub¬ 
ject.  I  have  endeavoured  sincerely  and 
sympathetically  to  reproduce  all  its  lead¬ 
ing  phases  and  characteristics,  and  to 


VI 


PREFACE 


show  its  gradual  growth  from  the  archaic 
period  to  our  modern  time,  bearing  in  its 
evolutions  such  a  striking  resemblance  to 
the  art  of  Europe.  As  in  the  latter,  so  in 
the  former,  primitive  art  was  a  religious 
art,  and  in  both  the  feudal  period  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  renaissance.  In  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century,  the  glorious  epoch  of  the 
Fukugawa  Shogunate  corresponds  to  the 
age  of  Louis  XV.,  while  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  classical  ideal  was  followed 
by  a  realistic  tendency  in  both  Japan  and 
Europe. 

The  great  difficulty  lay  in  knowing 
what  to  omit.  Japan  was  very  fertile  in  the 
production  of  artists  —  the  famous  Hay- 
ashi’s  collection  mentions  over  four  hun¬ 
dred  representatives  of  the  Ukio-ye  school 
alone,  and  the  necessary  limitations  of 
space,  among  other  reasons,  made  it  impos¬ 
sible  to  exhaust  the  list  of  all  those  worthy 
of  mention.  I  have  paid  slight  attention 


PREFACE 


Vll 


to  the  peculiar  habit  of  Japanese  artists  of 
changing  their  names  several  times  during 
their  professional  career,— as  it  would  test 
the  memory  too  severely,  —  but  invariably, 
except  in  a  few  cases,  mentioned  the  name 
by  which  they  were  best  known,  Nor 
have  I  devoted  much  space  to  biograph¬ 
ical  notes  and  the  Japanese  titles  of  the 
artists’  works,  as  they  would  only  confuse 
the  reader. 

My  sole  aim  was  to  show  what  the  lead¬ 
ing  schools  and  their  foremost  exponents 
have  actually  accomplished,  with  particu¬ 
lar  stress  on  those  of  their  accomplishments 
which  appeal  most  strongly  to  our  W est- 
ern  sense  of  aesthetics,  and  to  also  give  the 
layman  an  opportunity  of  coming  into 
touch  with  the  infinite  variety  and  grace 
of  Japanese  pictorialism. 

I  hope  that  this  book  will  be  welcomed 
by  all  those  interested  in  the  culture  of  a 
country  where,  apparently,  for  centuries, 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


all  worked  in  harmony,  pursuing  the  same 
ideals  and  following  the  same  methods  of 
ornamentation,  in  order  to  produce  a  na¬ 
tional  art:  the  art  of  Old  Japan. 

The  Author. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Early  Religious  Painting  .  .  n 

II.  The  Feudal  Period  37 

III.  The  Renaissance . 60 

IV.  The  Realistic  Movement  .  .  .104 

V.  The  Influence  of  Japanese  Art  on 

Western  Civilization  .  .  .154 

VI.  Japanese  Architecture  and  Sculp¬ 
ture  . 174 

VII.  The  Ornamental  Arts  .  .  .  216 

VIII.  Modern  Japanese  Art  .  .  .  253 

Bibliography . 279 

Index . 283 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Shunso.  —  Typical  Woman  of  the  Ukio-ye  School 

(See  page  iij)  ....  Frontispiece 

Chang  -  Yueh  -  hu.  —  Kakemonos  or  Wall  Picture 

of  Bodhi-Dharma  Crossing  the  Sea  on  a  Reed  1 8 
Hoyen  (Modern  School  of  Kanaoka).—  God¬ 
dess  Kwannon  (See  also  page  122 )  .  .  .32 

Yamoto-Tosa  School.  —  Autumn  Flowers  .  40 

Mitsunobu.  —  Prince  and  Princess  ...  48 

Late  Tosa  School.  —  Orchard  in  Spring  .  .  53 

Motongbu  (Kano  School).  —  Mountain  Stream  65 

Massanobu.  — ■  Portrait  of  the  Actor,  Ichikawa 

Danjuro  70 

Mokke.  —  A  Tiger . 79 

Korin.  —  Character  Portrait  ....  96 

Moronobu - Morning  Toilet  .  .  .  .108 

Kuniyoshy — -A  Ronin  .  .  .  .  .126 

Ki  YON  AG  A. — -Picking  Iris . 13 1 

Kunisada.  —  On  the  River  .  .  .  .  .133 

Outomaro.  —  A  Yedo  Beauty  ....  136 

Hiroshige.  —  A  Landscape  .  .  .  -138 

Hiroshige.-— A  Rain-Storm  .  .  .  .141 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Hokusai.  —  View  of  Mount  Fusiyama  .  .  149 

Sketches  of  Cranes  for  Decorative  Work  157 

Silk  Embroidery  for  a  Screen  .  .  15S 

Bronze  Sword-Guards  and  Corner  -  Pieces  167 

Torii . 189 

Pagoda . 196 

Dai-Butsu,  Asakasa . 207 

Bronze  Vase . 239 

Bronze  Vase . 243 

Lacquer -Work . 249 

Kiosai.  —  Council  in  the  Dragon  Castle  .  .  257 

Hokkei.  —  Landscape  .....  265 

Sessei.  —  Bronze  Relief  of  Goddess  Benten  .  270 


JAPANESE  ART 


CHAPTER  I. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


The  Kanaoka  School  (7th-ioth  Century) 

fODS  and  goddesses,  with  large 
halos  against  dark  blue  back¬ 
grounds,  strange  divinities,  smil¬ 
ing  serenely,  garbed  in  soft,  flowing 
draperies,  seated  on  thrones  cushioned 
with  lotus  flowers,  and  surrounded  by 
mythological  attributes  —  such  are  the 
pictures  that  have  come  down  to  us  from 
the  earliest  period  of  Japanese  art. 

Just  as  in  Italy  religious  painting,  be¬ 
fore  giving  place  to  the  more  realistic  art 


I  2 


JAPANESE  ART 


of  the  successors  of  Masaccio,  had  incar¬ 
nated  in  the  work  of  Fra  Angelico  its 
ideal  and  mystical  tendencies,  so  Japan 
embodied  in  the  decorative  panels  of  its 
temples  its  ancient  ideals  of  pure  and 
native  beauty. 

In  the  eighth  century,  when  the  city  of 
Nara  was  made  the  seat  of  the  Mikado’s 
government,  Japan  was  by  no  means  in 
an  archaic  state.  The  authority  of  the 
crown  had  become  greatly  extended, 
the  power  of  the  hereditary  local  chief¬ 
tains  broken,  and  a  system  of  government 
instituted  with  prefects,  who  held  office 
subject  to  the  control  of  the  Mikado. 
Learning,  which  in  Japan  meant  the 
study  of  the  masterpieces  of  Chinese 
antiquity,  had  made  progress.  Schools 
had  been  established,  and  a  university, 
comprising  the  four  faculties  of  history,  of 
the  Chinese  classics,  of  law,  and  of  arith¬ 
metic,  was  founded.  This,  it  will  be 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


13 


observed,  was  for  the  benefit  of  the  official 
classes  only.  It  was  not  until  many  cen¬ 
turies  later  that  education  reached  the 
common  people.  There  were  also  teach¬ 
ers,  mostly  Koreans,  of  medicine,  paint¬ 
ing,  and  the  glyptic  art.  The  colossal 
bronze  statue  of  Buddha,  and  some  re¬ 
markable  sculptures  in  wood,  which  are 
still  to  be  seen  at  Nara,  testify  to  the  skill 
which  the  Japanese  had  then  acquired  in 
the  last  named  art. 

The  first  written  book  which  has  come 
down  to  us  in  the  Japanese,  or  indeed  in 
any  Turanian  tongue,  the  Kojiki  or  “  Rec¬ 
ords  of  Ancient  Matters,”  was  completed 
in  712;  and  at  the  court  of  Nara  there 
existed  a  regular  hereditary  corporation  of 
“  reciters,”  similar  to  the  bards  of  Britan¬ 
nia  and  Ireland,  who  recited  “  ancient 
words  ”  before  the  Mikado  on  solemn 
occasions. 

Of  even  greater  importance  were  their 


JAPANESE  ART 


achievements  in  architecture.  This  art 
was  intimately  connected  with  Buddhism, 
a  cult  which  demanded  stately  temples  and 
pagodas  for  its  due  exercise.  The  in¬ 
creasing  authority  of  the  court  also  re¬ 
quired  edifices  more  befitting  its  dignity, 
and  more  in  consonance  with  the  gor¬ 
geous  costumes  and  ceremonials  adopted 
from  China,  than  the  old  sovereign 
palaces,  which  were  only  temporary,  every 
Mikado  having  built  himself  a  palace  in  a 
new  locality. 

China  was  in  those  days  not  as  unpro¬ 
gressive,  prosaic,  sordid  in  temperament, 
and  mercenary  in  aim  as  it  is  to-day  (or 
as  we  suppose  it  to  be).  Its  ancient  civi¬ 
lization,  its  copious  and,  in  many  respects, 
remarkable  literature,  and  a  history  which 
even  then  went  back  thousands  of  years, 
exercised  a  commanding  influence  on  the 
surrounding  countries.  It  played  the  part 
of  Greece  to  the  Eastern  world,  and  there 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


15 


is  no  department  of  Japanese  national  life 
and  thought,  whether  material  civilization, 
religion,  morals,  political  organization,  lan¬ 
guage,  literature  or  art,  which  does  not 
bear  traces  of  Chinese  influence. 

Beyond  China  lies  India,  which  has 
furnished  an  important  factor  in  mould¬ 
ing  the  Japanese  character,  namely,  Bud¬ 
dhism.  If,  in  regard  to  Japan,  China  takes 
the  place  of  Greece  and  Rome,  Buddhism, 
with  its  softening  and  humanizing  influ¬ 
ences,  holds  a  position  similar  to  that  of 
Christianity  in  the  Western  world.  The 
alternate  preponderance  of  these  two 
powers  is  an  interesting  feature  of  Japa¬ 
nese  history,  and  we  shall  see  that  it  has 
not  been  without  effect  upon  its  art. 

The  island  mountaineers,  in  continual 
touch  with  the  mainland,  through  numer¬ 
ous  immigrations  from  Korea  to  Japan, 
which  extended  over  centuries,  received 
the  gifts  of  Chinese  and  East  Indian  art 


I 6  JAPANESE  ART 

and  culture  with  open  arms  and  utilized 
them  to  the  best  advantage.  It  gave  life 
to  their  religious  and  philosophical  ideals, 
to  their  myths,  their  poetry,  and  their  art. 

From  this,  however,  it  must  not  be 
inferred  that  the  Japanese  have  been  only 
borrowers  and  copyists.  If  this  were  true, 
if  there  had  been  no  first  individuality, 
waiting  to  apprehend  and  restate  the  for¬ 
eign  influences,  no  mere  change  of  atmos¬ 
phere  would  have  galvanized  into  life  a 
new  culture  and  a  new  art.  The  Japanese 
would  have  passed  from  idol  to  idol,  with 
the  unintelligent  submission  of  savages, 
and  with  a  benumbing  indifference  to 
principles.  But  Japan,  in  fact,  has  ever 
and  anon  renewed  her  youth ;  and  with 
each  outburst  of  creative  efforts  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  Chinese  traditions  has  become 
fainter  and  fainter,  and  the  qualities  of 
the  national  character  more  and  more 
pronounced. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


1 7 


The  isolated  situation  and  the  elongated 
shape  of  the  Japanese  islands,  something 
like  that  of  a  narrow  crescent  severed 
from  the  mainland,  have  helped  the  land 
of  the  rising  sun  to  give  birth  to  a  privi¬ 
leged  race,  fit  for  all  refinements,  and 
gifted  with  the  noblest  and  most  artistic 
sensibility. 

The  oldest  written  documents  of  the 
Japanese,  those  of  the  eighth  and  ninth 
centuries,  make  no  allusion  to  any  style 
of  pictorial  art  previous  to  the  fifth  cen¬ 
tury.  Modern  investigation,  however,  has 
pronounced  a  Buddhistic  altar-piece  in  the 
temple  of  Horiuji,  at  Nara,  the  most  an¬ 
cient  pictorial  relic.  The  first  painter 
mentioned  was  a  Chinese,  by  the  name 
of  Shinki,  who  is  said  to  have  come  to 
Japan  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Yuriaku  (457-479).  A  little  later  Suki, 
a  descendant  of  the  Chinese  emperor, 
Wen  Ti,  came  to  Nippon  and  was  natu- 


I 8  JAPANESE  ART 

ralized.  “  The  brush  of  his  son  became 
famous  in  the  days  of  Emperor  Buretsu  ” 
(499-506,  a.  d.).  About  three  hundred 
years  later,  a  descendant  of  Shinki,  Nau- 
riu,  as  he  is  sometimes  called,  obtained 
the  title  of  “Painter  of  Japan”  from  the 
Mikado. 

The  city  of  Kyoto  became  the  centre 
of  art.  It  gathered  under  its  palace  roofs 
and  temple  eaves  all  the  art  those  days 
produced.  It  became  the  home  of  Bud¬ 
dhistic  culture,  and  gave  birth  to  the  re¬ 
ligious  school  of  painting.  Kukai,  better 
known  as  Daishi,  the  “  illustrious  apostle 
of  Buddhism,”  painted  four  of  the  seven 
images  of  high  priests  that  have  become 
historical.  The  painters  Kabenari  (853) 
and  Minamoto-no-Nabu  were  employed  in 
the  temples,  and  Kavenaka  executed  a 
number  of  panels  for  the  imperial  palace. 

The  Buddhist  monks  chiselled  from 
three  to  five  thousand  images  every  year. 


Chang  -  YQeh  -  hu.  —  Kakemonos  or  Wall 
Picture  of  Bodhi-Dharma  Crossing 
the  Sea  on  a  Reed. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


19 


Chirography  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
a  fine  art.  Mathematics  had  many  expert 
exponents.  The  study  of  astronomy  was 
taken  up  with  new  zeal,  and  the  art  of 
healing  made  considerable  progress.  The 
Minamotos  made  their  age  wonder  at 
their  musical  gifts,  and  the  writing  of 
poetry  became  a  favourite  pastime  with 
the  ladies  of  the  court. 

In  the  ninth  century  the  temples  and 
palaces  were  filled  with  renowned  pictures, 
both  by  natives  and  Chinese.  Kanaoka, 
who  typifies  the  earliest  style  of  Japanese 
painting,  spent  long  years  in  studying 
them.  He  became  famous  about  850- 
859.  In  880  he  decorated  the  screens 
and  walls  of  the  Kyoto  palace  with  the 
portraits  of  Confucius  and  other  Chinese 
philosophers.  A  few  years  later  he  painted 
a  serial  of  the  ancient  sages  and  poets  of 
Japan  for  the  audience-chamber  of  the 
Mikado’s  palace. 


20 


JAPANESE  ART 


His  sacred  pictures,  Japanese  divinities 
in  the  beatified  attitudes  of  India,  tip¬ 
toeing  on  waves,  wrapped  in  clouds,  or 
sitting  cross-legged,  weighed  down  by 
heavenly  meditations,  are  said  to  have 
been  very  numerous. 

Very  little  of  it,  however,  has  been 
saved,  nor  have  his  successors  been  more 
successful  in  that  respect.  The  secular 
enemy  of  Japanese  temples,  fire,  has  des¬ 
troyed  nearly  all,  and  those  few  that  have 
been  preserved  are  altered  in  colour  by 
exposure  and  oxidation.  Only  the  deep 
clear  blue,  so  often  seen  in  the  old  Bud¬ 
dhist  pictures,  consisting  of  pure  lapis 
laziili,  ground  up  into  a  pigment,  is  to-day 
as  brilliant  as  it  was  of  yore. 

This  lapis  lazuli  blue  is  really  the 
most  characteristic  colour  of  Japan.  The 
first  vivid  colour-impression  a  stranger 
receives  as  he  walks  through  the  streets 
of  Yeddo  or  Yokohama  is  this  peculiar 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


21 


blue.  The  top-heavy  roofs  of  the  build¬ 
ings  are  mostly  covered  with  blue  tiles, 
and  the  same  colour-note  dominates  in 
the  popular  costume  and  the  sign-boards 
of  the  shops.  There  is,  in  places,  a 
sprinkling  of  light  blue,  white,  and  red ; 
but  the  remainder  is  blue  —  green  and 
yellow  being  almost  completely  absent. 

Of  Kanaoka’s  painting,  scarcely  a  dozen 
specimens  remain.  One  can  still  be  seen 
at  the  temple  of  Nieinai;  another,  repre¬ 
senting  the  god  Fudo,  enveloped  by  flames, 
with  a  big  wand  in  his  hand,  at  the  temple 
Dayuyi  at  Tokyo.  Also  the  ancient 
temples  at  Nara  and  in  the  province  of 
Bizen  contain  examples  of  his  work. 
There  is  consequently  no  reason  to  doubt 
his  great  talent. 

Various  legends  tell  of  wonderful  feats 
accomplished  by  his  brush.  One  of  the 
best  known  of  these  stories,  reminding 
one  of  Zeuxis’s  grapes,  which  were  so 


JAPANESE  ART 


2  2 

naturally  painted  that  the  birds  came  to 
pick  at  them,  is  as  follows: 

“  The  rice-fields  were  nightly  devas¬ 
tated  by  some  unknown  horse,  which  by 
day  could  on  no  occasion  be  tracked. 
One  night,  however,  it  was  resolved 
among  the  peasants  to  lie  in  wait  for  the 
animal.  As  soon  as  darkness  came,  it 
did  not  fail  to  make  its  appearance,  but 
it  was  swift  and  artful,  showing  no  willing¬ 
ness  to  allow  its  capture.  Then  a  des¬ 
perate  pursuit  commenced,  which  seemed 
to  be  without  end.  —  The  chase  grows 
wilder  and  more  furious.  Suddenly,  how¬ 
ever,  the  animal  disappears  through  a 
temple  door,  his  hunters  follow  him ;  they 
search  everywhere  around  and  cannot 
find  him,  until  in  the  wall,  in  a  celebrated 
picture,  which  hangs  in  its  accustomed 
place,  they  see  the  fiery  beast,  who  has  just 
reentered  his  frame,  entirely  covered  with 
foam,  and  still  panting  from  his  frantic  race. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


23 


“  The  horse  had  been  so  wondrously 
portrayed  by  Kanaoka,  and,  indeed,  with 
such  an  appearance  of  real  life,  that  he 
became  a  living  thing,  and  returned  each 
night  to  liberty  amongst  the  fields.” 

The  only  Kanaoka  that  can  be  seen 
outside  of  Japan  is  at  the  Louvre  in  Paris. 
It  bears  the  date  of  the  second  half  of  the 
ninth  century,  and  was  brought  over  in 
1882  by  a  Japanese  amateur.  The  museum 
authorities  at  first  refused  to  consider  it, 
but  finally  consented  to  admit  it.  It  rep¬ 
resents  Dsijo,  the  god  of  benevolence. 
With  his  plump  body  half  naked,  his 
head  shaven,  his  eyes  half  closed,  he  is 
gazing  into  space.  It  appears  that  he  has 
been  dreaming  thus  for  a  very  long  time, 
and  that  he  will  never  rouse  himself  again 
to  the  sensations  of  reality.  This  being 
is  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world ;  he 
has  entered  Nirvana. 

It  is  a  work  of  art  manifestly  primitive, 


24 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  yet  not  crude,  as  were,  for  instance, 
the  ancient  mural  paintings  of  Egypt, 
which  represented  personages  in  profile 
while  the  eyes  were  seen  as  if  from  a  front 
view.  The  drawing,  although  not  ana¬ 
tomically  correct,  is  marvellously  sure  and 
pure  in  its  line  composition.  Infinitely 
removed  from  mere  prettiness,  from  empty 
abstraction  as  from  realistic  curiosity,  there 
is  in  its  line  idea  an  exhaustless  wealth  of 
languid  grace  and  eastern  deliciousness. 
One  could  not  change  a  single  line  by 
a  hair’s  breadth  without  changing  the 
poise  of  the  whole.  The  colouring  is 
harmonious,  reminding  one  slightly  of 
faded  tapestry  and  the  deep,  satiated 
tones  of  the  Primitives;  but  that  is 
more  the  work  of  time  than  of  the  paint¬ 
er’s  brush. 

It  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  trace 
the  origin  of  this  peculiar  art.  It  is  not, 
as  yet,  genuinely  Japanese;  its  composi- 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


25 


tion  is  too  symmetrical  for  that,  and  the 
flow  of  the  lines  not  rapid  and  instantane¬ 
ous  enough.  The  Chinese  painters  of  the 
Tang  dynasty  painted  in  a  more  rigid  and 
pompous  manner.  The  conception  of  the 
picture  is  purely  Buddhistic.  In  Benares 
you  may  run  across  similar  pictures,  but 
their  treatment  is  generally  more  elabo¬ 
rate.  The  Hindu  perceives  chiefly  the 
multitudinous  and  diverse,  and  everything 
in  his  art  is  complex  and  exaggerated, 
and,  for  the  lack  of  leading  lines,  irregular. 
The  picture  of  Kanaoka,  on  the  contrary, 
is  as  simple  as  early  Byzantine  work,  and 
as  soft  and  graceful  as  Persian  painting. 
It  is  therefore  possible  that  the  begin¬ 
nings  of  Japanese  art  were  strongly 
affected  by  Persian  influences.  That 
there  was  an  exchange  of  ideas  between 
Persia  and  Japan  in  those  remote  days, 
is  known  from  ancient  chronicles,  which 
report  that  “  Persian  and  Japanese  em- 


26 


JAPANESE  ART 


bassies  met  at  the  court  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom.” 

Although  rarely  rising  to  greatness  and 
freedom  of  expression,  the  work  of  this 
period  has  a  never-failing  tenderness  and 
purity,  a  cheerfulness  and  sincerity,  a  re¬ 
finement  of  feeling,  which  gives  an  elevated 
pleasure  to  the  student  who  approaches 
these  relics  in  a  less  critical  than  appre¬ 
ciative  mood.  They  possess  a  living,  self- 
withdrawn  quality  of  expression  which 
gives  them  a  peculiar  religious  grace  — 
not  ecclesiastical  unction,  but  the  devout¬ 
ness  of  the  heart. 

The  painters  devoted  themselves  chiefly 
to  religious  subjects,  but  among  their  works 
were  also  occasional  portraits,  figures  of 
animals,  and  landscapes.  Most  of  this 
work  was  executed  on  the  walls,  ceilings, 
and  sliding  screens  ( shoyi )  of  the  Bud¬ 
dhistic  temples.  But  also  the  more  up-to- 
date  vehicles  for  pictorial  expression,  to 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


2  7 


which  we  have  become  accustomed,  were 
already  in  use,  namely,  kakemonos  (wall 
pictures),  makimonos  (scroll  pictures)  and 

The  kakemono  is  an  oblong  piece  of  silk, 
framed  in  stripes  of  brocade,  and  mounted 
on  a  long  narrow  strip  of  canvas  with 
wooden  rollers.  The  makimono  is  a  scroll 
with  rollers,  intended  to  be  examined  by 
hand,  and  the  gaku  a  picture  framed  in 
Western  fashion. 

Kanaoka  originated  a  different  style  of 
technique  for  each  of  these  mediums,  fully 
realizing  that  each  would  need  an  individ¬ 
ual  treatment  of  its  own.  He  founded  the 
imperial  school  of  Yedoreko,  and  had  many 
pupils ;  the  most  illustrious  ones  being,  as 
is  so  often  the  case  with  Japanese  artists, 
members  of  his  own  family,  his  two  sons, 
Atima  and  Kateda,  and  his  great-grandson, 
Hirotaka  (987-1012).  The  latter  was  a 
priest  as  well  as  a  painter,  and  is  said  to 


28 


JAPANESE  ART 


have  been  the  first  painter  who  depicted 
the  Buddhistic  hell.  One  of  his  composi¬ 
tions,  on  a  large  scale,  remarkable  in  its 
power  of  characterization,  is  still  shown  to 
visitors  of  the  temple  of  Tchiorakouyi,  in 
the  province  of  Omi. 

From  all  over  the  country,  particularly 
from  the  province  of  Hida,  artisans,  who 
were  at  once  architects,  carvers,  and  car¬ 
penters,  came  flocking  to  Kyoto,  among 
them  Suminawa,  who  surpassed  his  brother 
artists  in  skill  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
people  of  Kyoto  called  him  “  the  carpenter 
artist  of  Hida.”  Temple  after  temple  was 
built,  and  not  less  than  thirteen  thousand 
images  were  painted,  by  imperial  decree, 
during  the  reign  of  Mikado  Genwa  (859- 
876). 

Kyoto  must  have  been  an  extraordinary 
city  in  those  days.  Elsewhere,  religion 
and  art  were  only  parts  of  the  public  life, 
at  Kyoto  scarcely  anything  else  was  to  be 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


29 


seen.  It  occupied  thousands  of  enthusi¬ 
asts,  whole  streets  were  turned  into  studios 
and  workshops,  and  the  population  of  idols 
and  images  is  said  to  have  been  as  nu¬ 
merous  as  the  human  population. 

The  Shiba  temple  at  Tokyo  still  gives  a 
faint  idea  of  this  era  of  religious  splendour. 
With  erudition,  a  Western  mind  may  be 
able  to  reproduce  for  itself  the  ideas  and 
sentiments,  the  sequences  of  images  and 
emotions  which  formed  the  soul  of  a  Bud¬ 
dhistic  painter  or  architect.  We  can  imag¬ 
ine  the  intense  impression  it  must  have 
created  in  those  days,  when  religion  occu¬ 
pied  every  moment  of  man’s  thought,  as 
even  to-day  we  feel  bewildered  at  its 
traces. 

At  first  sight,  one  scarcely  knows  what 
all  these  forms  represent.  They  only  seem 
a  confusion  of  lines,  curving,  interlaced, 
entangled  by  chance.  By  degrees  shapes 
are  discernible  —  gods,  genii,  dragons, 


30 


JAPANESE  ART 


dolphins,  animals  and  flowers,  waves  and 
flames,  all  elements  thrown  together,  piled 
one  over  the  other  like  a  living  heap. 
Everything  seems  endlessly  complicated, 
some  divinities  have  half  a  dozen  heads  or 
more,  the  plants  extend  in  every  direction, 
the  flowers  are  entwined  and  twisted  into 
each  other.  Everything  is  multiple  in  this 
inundation  of  divinities,  in  this  confusion 
of  chapels,  altars,  sacred  lanterns,  statues 
of  animals  and  huge  lotus  flowers.  This 
characteristic  appears  again  in  the  strange 
architectural  constructions,  where  one 
curve  grows  out  of  another,  as  a  leaf  out 
of  a  leaf ;  and  where  gods  innumerable, 
bodies  of  quadrupeds  and  of  submarine 
creatures,  half  tortoise  and  half  mon¬ 
key,  abound,  crushing  each  other,  rising 
in  quaint  geometrical  shapes  of  diverse 
forms. 

The  creation  of  symbols  is  an  entire 
world  by  itself.  The  Japanese  mind, 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING  3 1 

which  is  otherwise  so  correct  and  well 
ordered,  has  run  wild.  All  our  mental 
habits  are  set  at  naught  by  this  multitu¬ 
dinousness  of  apparitions.  A  sensation 
of  bewilderment  and  vertigo  overcomes 
us  as  we  look  at  those  endless  processions 
of  gods,  divinities,  mythological  person- 
ages,  genii  and  demons,  at  these  hairy, 
extravagantly  shaped  creatures  with  elon¬ 
gated  arms  and  legs,  with  enormous  crani- 
ums  (like  Fukuruja,  the  god  of  wealth),  at 
these  eight-headed  dragons  twisting  and 
writhing  in  vapours  or  flames,  at  these 
strange  bodies  of  quadrupeds,  unknown 
to  the  zoology  of  a  Cuvier  or  Agassiz. 
Fairy  castles,  inhabited  by  wicked  demons, 
rise  fata-morgana-like  in  the  mist,  jewel- 
ornamented  sea-shrines  sparkle  in  the 
depth  of  the  waves,  and  dragon-guarded 
caves  open  before  one’s  astonished  eyes. 

The  Japanese  of  nimble  apprehension, 
with  a  turn  for  neatness  and  elegance  even 


32 


JAPANESE  ART 


in  his  pleasures,  is  fond  of  listening  to 
stories,  and  it  matters  little  to  him  whether 
they  are  told  to  the  eye  or  ear.  Whether 
tattooed  on  the  back  of  a  foot-runner, 
pounded  out  by  punch  or  hammer  in 
metal,  enamelled  in  cloisonne  or  niello, 
embroidered,  inlaid,  or  painted,  his  eye 
delights  to  read  the  familiar,  fancy-tickling 
lore. 

The  artists  have  taken  advantage  of  this 
predilection  for  symbols.  They  have  elab¬ 
orated  them  into  a  sort  of  artistic  short¬ 
hand,  and  classified  them  into  groups,  by 
means  of  which  they  are  able  to  tell  many  a 
long  story  with  utmost  brevity.  And  they 
never  tire  of  telling  the  story  in  the  same 
way.  Benten,  a  female  personification  of 
virtue,  is  represented  as  a  beautiful  woman 
playing  a  lute.  Ivwannon,  the  goddess  of 
the  sea,  sits  among  jagged  rocks  at  the 
shore,  outwardly  the  type  of  peace  and 
contemplation,  inwardly  ranging  with  rest- 


Hoyen  (Modern  School  of  Kanaoka). —  Goddess 
Kwannon. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


33 


less  eye  the  treacherous  expanses  of  ocean, 
from  whose  disaster  and  death,  by  her 
supreme  will,  she  rescues  the  helpless 
marines.  Futen,  the  wind-imp,  lives  aloft, 
as  he  loosens  and  opens  his  ever-plethoric 
wind-bag,  setting  into  motion  zephyrs, 
breezes,  cyclones,  or  tornadoes.  Raiden, 
the  thunder-god,  busy  with  his  drums,  is 
always  partially  hidden  among  clouds.  A 
number  of  genii  with  quaint,  uncouth 
names,  invariably  performing  the  same 
antics,  can  be  recognized  at  the  first 
glance.  One  of  them  conjures  miniature 
horses  out  of  a  gourd ;  another  floats  on  a 
hollow  trunk;  a  third  one  never  tires  of 
looking  at  a  waterfall ;  a  little  old  man  is 
persistently  depicted  riding  an  ox ;  a  beg¬ 
gar  amuses  himself  by  emitting  his  spirit 
out  of  his  mouth ;  another  one  tramps 
about,  accompanied  by  a  toad  which  gen¬ 
erally  sits  on  his  head  ;  and  the  best  known 
of  all  these  curious  personages  invariably 


34 


JAPANESE  ART 


rises  from  a  river  on  the  back  of  a  winged 
carp. 

This  fairy  world  furnished  the  artist 
with  a  most  fascinating  repertoire,  to 
which,  with  slight  deviation,  he  has  re¬ 
mained  faithful  to  this  very  day. 

Space  does  not  permit  to  tell  of  all  the 
creatures  in  Japanese  mythology.  In 
many  instances,  they  are  the  epitomes, 
expressed  in  graphic  symbols,  of  past 
myths,  or  of  real  struggles  and  conquests, 
the  memory  of  which  survives  in  imagina¬ 
tion  but  not  in  chronology. 

Japan  is  largely  indebted  to  Buddhism 
for  its  art  symbols.  The  symbolism  of 
Gautama  is  like  an  immense  vegetation, 
with  ever-increasing  branches,  an  inextri¬ 
cable  network  of  offshoots,  all  growing 
vigorously  and  unrestrained,  covering 
all  of  men’s  thoughts  with  its  ornamental 
fretwork. 

Buddhism,  however,  became  in  Japan 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  PAINTING 


35 


never  as  intense  as  in  India.  Its  rites 
did  not  become  tyrannical,  and  its  meta¬ 
physics  did  not  worry  and  confuse  the 
people.  The  Japanese,  being  rather  sen¬ 
timental  than  passionate,  and  more  in¬ 
genious  and  inventive  than  profound, 
found  himself  incapable  of  leading  the 
languid  life  of  the  Hindu.  He  was  too 
active  and  receptive  for  that.  His  vora¬ 
cious  appetite  for  knowledge  did  not  allow 
him  to  deny  his  ego.  The  incense,  which 
in  India  was  stupefying,  giving  to  scenes 
a  certain  unreality  and  the  character  as 
of  a  dream,  was  in  Japan  merely  a  veil, 
that  embellished  and  spiritualized  actual¬ 
ity. 

The  Nipponese  imbued  the  violent  emo¬ 
tions  and  overwhelming  meditations  of 
Buddhism  with  the  gentler  spirit  of  the 
myth  and  folk-lore  of  their  original  faith, 
of  Shintoism,  which  is  the  simplest  creed 
imaginable,  teaching  little  more  than  rev- 


36 


JAPANESE  ART 


erence  for  the  supernatural  powers  that 
created  and  govern  the  universe  of  man. 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  the  evo¬ 
lution  of  the  Japanese  race  and  the  indi¬ 
viduality  of  their  art  without  Shintoism, 
for  Shintoism  lives  not  so  much  in  books, 
rites,  or  commandments,  but  in  the  heart 
of  the  nation,  of  which  it  is  the  highest 
emotional  expression.  For,  underlying  all 
the  surface  crop  of  foreign  superstitions, 
myths,  and  magic,  there  thrilled  always 
this  mighty  spiritual  power,  which  en¬ 
dowed  everything  with  its  elusive  subtlety 
and  buoyant  geniality,  and  which  taught 
the  Japanese  to  feel  the  throb  of  their 
own  national  life  whenever  foreign  impact 
threatened  to  sweep  away  native  idols  and 
precedents. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 
The  Yamoto  and  Tosa  Schools  (1000-1400) 

EXT  to  Buddhism,  feudalism  was 
the  special  patron  and  stimulus 
of  the  Japanese  artist. 

A  glance  at  the  arms  and  armour  of  a 
feudal  lord  shows  how  his  full  equipment 
summoned  most  of  the  fine  arts  to  the 
service  of  the  warrior  caste.  The  harness 
of  hide  and  chain  armour,  silk  and  steel, 
brocade  and  lacquer;  the  helmet  and 
breastplate  of  chased  gold  and  silver ; 
the  dragon  insignia  of  cast  and  chiselled 
metal ;  the  silken  banner,  woven,  em¬ 
broidered,  or  painted,  with  the  ancestral 
blazon ;  the  polished  triumphs  of  the 


38 


JAPANESE  ART 


quiver  and  arrow-maker’s  art ;  the  double 
bow  of  wood  and  cane ;  the  sword-rack 
from  the  gold-lacquerer’s  hand ;  the 
swords,  “  the  samurai’s  soul,”  with  their 
hilts  and  handles  encrusted  with  orna¬ 
ments  of  precious  metals ;  the  bear-skin 
shoes  and  tiger-skin  sheath ;  the  shark- 
hide  grip,  and  curiously  wrought  dirk 
scabbard,  made  a  panoply  to  which  the 
masters  of  many  arts  contributed. 

In  1050  a  noble  of  the  court,  Moto- 
mitsu,  founded  a  new  national  school  of 
painting,  the  Yamoto,  which  two  cen¬ 
turies  later,  when  it  became  the  official 
art  school,  adopted  the  name  of  Tosa. 
It  pretended  to  separate  Japanese  art 
from  all  foreign  influences.  Times  had 
changed ;  the  different  branches  of  fine 
and  liberal  arts  had  made  rapid  strides 
toward  perfection,  and  bore  the  impress 
which  native  influences  had  stamped  upon 
them.  In  dancing  and  music,  in  archi- 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


39 


tecture,  in  the  cut  and  pattern  of  gar¬ 
ments,  in  literature,  the  Japanese  had 
created  a  world  which  was  distinct  from 
anything  foreign,  and  which  was  all  their 
own. 

Although  Chinese  inspiration  gave  birth 
to  the  Yamoto  school,  the  latter  developed 
into  something  entirely  different  from 
anything  Chinese.  In  other  words,  it 
created  a  school  of  Nipponese  pictorial 
art,  in  which  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a 
touch  of  Chinese  influence,  as  far  as  the 
choice  of  subject  is  concerned,  for  its 
principal  merit  lay  in  the  faithful  repro¬ 
duction  of  Japanese  feudal  life. 

It  was  a  troublous  period,  marked  by 
furious  combats  and  other  warlike  events, 
of  acts  of  vengeance,  secretly  planned  and 
fulfilled  by  treachery.  The  spirit  of  chiv¬ 
alry  developed  itself  to  an  extreme  point, 
and  during  all  this  period  of  blood  and 
fire,  of  frenzy  and  dark  passions,  the  code 


40 


JAPANESE  ART 


of  honour  and  the  scorn  of  death  arrived 
at  that  pitch,  which  has  called  forth  the  - 
admiration  of  the  universe,  and  which  was 
maintained  until  the  very  last  years  of  Old 
Japan. 

The  Yamoto-Tosa  school  has  repre¬ 
sented  these  multitudinous  phases  of  fever¬ 
ish  agitation,  the  bitter  contests  by  sea 
and  land,  the  proud  mien  of  warriors,  the 
tournaments,  single  combats,  warlike  ad¬ 
ventures  of  generals,  heroic  actions  and 
hairbreadth  escapes  of  the  warrior  caste, 
with  a  host  of  minute  details  of  dress,  cere¬ 
monials,  and  pompous  processions ;  but  it 
has  also  shown  the  daimyo  (feudal  lord) 
returning  to  his  home  in  times  of  peace, 
applying  himself  in  his  castle  gardens  to 
all  the  tender  and  poetic  inclinations,  that 
a  long  period  of  ungoverned  passion  had 
been  unable  to  banish  from  his  soul. 

This  style  has  been  called  ornate.  The 
writers  who  apply  this  epithet  generally 


Yamoto-Tosa  School.  —  Autumn  Flowers. 


I 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


41 


refer  to  the  peculiar  monotony  in  the  rep¬ 
resentation  of  the  human  figures.  No 
matter  how  vigorously  they  are  drawn, 
they  look  like  dolls  and  automatons,  not 
like  real  living  beings.  They  are  mere 
flourishes,  often  of  not  more  importance 
than  the  courtly  honorifics  which  are 
scrawled  all  over  the  picture.  There  is 
much  excuse  for  this.  The  Yamoto 
school  was  merely  a  means  to  glorify  the 
nobility.  Most  of  the  personages  depicted 
were  personages  of  rank,  living  daimyos, 
or  their  ancestors,  in  delineating  whose 
actions  a  more  realistic  style  would  have 
been  offensive.  The  student  finds  it  irri¬ 
tating  and  tiresome  at  first,  but  soon  gets 
accustomed  to  it.  In  truth,  such  depic¬ 
tion  was  in  entire  consonance  with  the 
elaborate  ceremonial,  the  imposing  but 
cumbrous  costume,  and  much  else  of  the 
rather  artificial  life  of  the  Japanese  court 
of  that  time. 


42 


JAPANESE  ART 


The  painters’  contemporaries,  no  doubt, 
found  these  pictures  quite  easy  to  under¬ 
stand  ;  but  since  then  the  institutions, 
manners,  and  customs  have  changed  so 
much  as  greatly  to  obscure  their  meaning, 
not  only  to  Western  students,  but  to  the 
Japanese  themselves.  Piles  of  commen¬ 
tary  by  native  connoisseurs  have  been 
accumulated  over  it,  and  their  interpreta¬ 
tions  are  often  so  inadequate,  that  writers 
of  a  later  date  have  found  it,  in  turn,  neces¬ 
sary  to  write  critical  works,  almost  entirely 
taken  up  with  correcting  the  errors  of  their 
predecessors. 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  foreigners  to 
form  an  accurate  opinion  of  this  school. 
It  is  very  imperfectly  represented  in  Euro¬ 
pean  and  American  collections.  True 
enough,  pictures  of  the  Tosa  school  are 
quite  often  offered  for  sale,  but  they 
are  invariably  products  of  a  later  date. 
Specimens  of  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


43 


thirteenth  century  can  no  longer  be  pur¬ 
chased,  even  if  one  were  willing  to  pay 
their  weight  hundredfold  in  gold.  They 
are  in  the  possession  of  old  Japanese  fam¬ 
ilies,  and  most  jealously  guarded.  Even 
of  the  more  modern  exponents  of  the  Tosa 
school,  as  Mitsunobu  (died,  1525),  Mitsu- 
oky,  and  finally  Mitsuyoshi,  authentic  pic¬ 
tures  can  seldom  be  seen. 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  artist  fami¬ 
lies  of  Minamoto  and  Motomitsu  were 
most  prominent;  in  the  twelfth  century 
we  encounter  the  names  of  Toba  Soja, 
the  horse  painter  and  originator  of  Japa¬ 
nese  caricature,  which  had  such  a  great 
revival  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
the  two  great  colourists,  Tamehissa  and 
Nobuzane.  In  the  thirteenth  century 
Tsoutenaka  became  the  leader  of  the 
imperial  school  of  Tosa.  His  contempo¬ 
raries  were  Takatshika,  who  decorated 
the  temple  of  Kassouga,  which  was  fin- 


44 


JAPANESE  ART 


ished  by  his  descendants  in  the  four¬ 
teenth  century,  the  two  Buddhistic  priests, 
Ono  Sojo  and  Seyin,  and  Soumiyoshi, 
“painter  of  the  imperial  court.” 

Subjecting  the  work  of  the  Yamato 
and  Tosa  schools  to  a  close  analysis, 
one  realizes  at  once  that  the  Japanese 
principles  of  composition  are  notably 
different  from  ours. 

First  of  all,  the  Japanese  never  uses 
frames.  Frames  serve  to  us  as  boundary 
lines  for  a  pictorial  representation  similar 
to  those  to  which  we  are  subjected  in  look¬ 
ing  at  a  fragment  of  life  out  of  an  ordinary 
window.  The  frame  clearly  defines  the 
painter’s  pictorial  vision,  and  concentrates 
the  interest  upon  his  canvas  even  to  such 
an  extent  that  all  other  environments  are 
forgotten.  The  Japanese  artist  never  uses 
solid,  elevated  “  boundary  lines  ”  to  isolate 
his  picture,  but,  on  the  contrary,  tries  to 
make  his  picture  merely  a  note  of  superior 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


45 


interest  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  rest 
of  the  kakemono,  which,  again,  is  in  per¬ 
fect  harmony  with  the  wall  in  which  it  is 
placed.  He  simply  uses  strips  of  beauti¬ 
fully  patterned  cloth  to  set  off  the  picture, 
and  endeavours  to  accentuate  its  lines  and 
colour  notes  by  the  mounting  and  the 
momentary  environments,  for  the  Japa¬ 
nese  does  not  understand  our  way  of 
hanging  pictures  in  inadequate  surround¬ 
ings.  He  subordinates  everything  to  his 
inherent  ideas  of  harmony,  and  is  perfectly 
aware  that  all  the  accessories  of  a  room, 
as  the  colour  of  screens,  the  form  of  vases 
and  lacquer-cabinets,  etc.,  must  harmonize 
with  the  picture,  in  order  to  reveal  its  true 
significance. 

This  has  been  called  “  decorative.” 
“  Japanese  art  is  decorative,”  our  critics 
have  repeated  over  and  over  again. 
What  a  meaningless  phrase  !  Art,  whether 
Japanese,  European,  or  American,  is  deco- 


46 


JAPANESE  ART 


rative  only  when  it  has  been  designed  to 
decorate  something  useful.  But  these 
Mitsunobus  decorate  nothing.  The  kake¬ 
monos  are  self-contained  expressions,  and 
only  because  an  ordinary  interior  would 
jar  with  their  subtle  charms,  the  Japanese 
find  it  necessary  to  supply  special  sur¬ 
roundings  for  them.  They  called  forth 
a  superior  style  of  interior  decoration,  but 
are  not  decorative  themselves,  unless  the 
word  decorative  is  used  in  a  sense  synony¬ 
mous  with  beautiful. 

Of  course,  any  one  familiar  with  Japa¬ 
nese  art  knows  that  it  neglects,  or  is  indif¬ 
ferent  to,  the  mystery  of  chiaroscura,  the 
persuasiveness  of  linear  perspective,  and 
the  logic  of  local  colour.  And  yet  they 
convey  depth  of  space,  an  effective  scale 
of  relative  importances  in  colour,  and  the 
purity  of  atmosphere,  as  well  as  we  do. 

Their  neglect  of  linear  perspective  is  a 
most  peculiar  trait,  for  one  cannot  con- 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD  47 

ceive  such  close  observers  as  the  Chinese 
and  Japanese  being  unable  to  see,  for 
instance,  that  a  road  appears  to  diminish 
as  it  recedes  from  the  eye.  Why  is  this  ? 
That  intricate  laws  of  perspective  want 
study,  that  even  the  vanishing  lines  of 
two  sides  of  a  house  may  not  be  percep¬ 
tible  to  the  ignorant,  may  be  possible,  but 
the  merest  child  sees  that  a  road  is  nar¬ 
rower  at  the  end  than  at  the  beginning 
where  he  stands.  Then,  again,  although 
the  anatomy  of  each  bird,  beast,  and  fish 
is  as  closely  observed  as  to  its  general 
characteristics,  distance  is  indicated  only 
by  diminishing  the  objects  depicted ;  and 
the  armour,  and  each  detail  of  the  cos¬ 
tumes  of  the  soldiers  a  mile  off,  are 
painted  with  as  much  minuteness  as  that 
on  the  men  who  are  in  the  immediate 
foreground. 

Another  striking  peculiarity  is  the  lack 
of  form  knowledge.  The  Japanese  painters, 


48 


JAPANESE  ART 


not  only  those  of  the  Yamoto-Tosa  school, 
but  to  this  very  day,  have  never  drawn  a 
proper  human  face  or  body,  as  we  under¬ 
stand  it.  Take,  for  instance,  a  warrior  or 
court  lady,  by  Mitsunobu.  The  represen¬ 
tation  undoubtedly  has  its  merits.  It  is, 
despite  the  frugality  of  its  colouring,  an 
example  of  most  perfect  flesh  painting, 
“  after  its  kind,”  which  for  modelling  re¬ 
minds  one  of  Holbein.  There  is  all  the 
apparent  flatness,  the  want  of  strange 
effects  of  light  and  shade,  and  the  intense 
individuality  of  expression,  and  yet  the 
drawing,  precise  as  it  is,  is  neither  anatom¬ 
ically  nor  proportionately  correct.  This 
seems  the  more  astonishing  to  us  as  the 
Japanese  men  and  women  are  by  no  means 
shy  in  appearing  naked,  which,  after  all, 
offers  the  best  opportunity  for  studying 
the  human  form.  It  must  be  noted,  how¬ 
ever,  that  their  religious  belief  regards  the 
body  as  a  vile  carcass,  of  no  worth  what- 


Mitsunobu.  —  Prince  and  Princess. 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


49 


ever,  destined  to  rot  and  waste  away. 
This,  in  connection  with  canons  as  rigid 
and  indisputable  as  those  of  the  ancient 
Greeks,  which  exactly  told  the  painter 
how  to  paint,  may  explain  much  of  this 
mannerism  in  the  eccentric  drawing  of 
drapery,  or  the  features  of  the  human 
face.  In  treating  the  folds  of  a  woman’s 
dress,  for  instance,  they  had  to  make 
them  either  “  undulating  as  the  waves  of 
the  sea,”  or  “angular  as  the  edges  of 
rocks,”  etc. 

European  art,  both  painting  and  sculp¬ 
ture,  went  through  a  continued  course  of 
development.  Naturally,  I  mean  develop¬ 
ment  as  regards  knowledge  of  anatomy, 
of  form,  of  colour,  and  of  general  tech¬ 
nique.  As  regards  sentiment,  perhaps 
there  was  more  decadence  than  progress, 
arriving  from  a  change  in  feeling  and 
in  faith,  without  a  corresponding  change 
in  subject.  The  Greeks,  as  the  Italians, 


5° 


JAPANESE  ART 


passed  through  the  same  phase  of  art, 
continuing  to  produce  subjects  long  after 
all  faith  in  them  had  passed  away.  Hence, 
the  decadence  in  Greek  art  in  the  early 
centuries  of  our  era,  and  in  Italian  art  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  But  as  soon 
as  men  perceived  their  error,  and  deter¬ 
mined  to  paint  what  was  around  and 
about  them,  art  revived  and  their  tech- 
nicpie  improved.  The  Flemish  schools, 
the  Spanish,  and  later  on  the  French  and 
English,  even  our  American  school,  all 
show  progress  in  that  respect.  In  Japan 
there  had  been  nothing  analagous  to  this. 
The  subjects  have  been  changed,  but  the 
technique  has  always  remained  true  to 
certain  rules  and  regulations  ;  and  it  would 
be  difficult  to  state  whether  the  Tosa, 
Kano,  or  Ukio-ye  masters  were  the  greater 
draughtsmen  or  colourists. 

With  this,  I  do  not  wish  to  imply  that 
the  Japanese  artist  does  not  study  from 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


51 


nature.  On  the  contrary,  he  has  derived 
all  the  fundamental  ideas  of  his  pictorial 
conceptions,  so  different  from  ours,  from 
a  close  study  of  nature.  The  Japanese  are 
on  by  far  more  intimate  terms  with  nature 
than  we  are,  and  “  nature  walks  ”  have 
always  been  one  of  the  most  popular 
means  of  instruction  in  the  education  of 
their  children.  But  the  artist  never  drew 
directly  from  nature.  He  merely  looked 
at  objects,  absorbed  all  their  peculiarities, 
and  then  went  back  to  his  studio  to 
combine  the  facts  of  nature  with  certain 
conventional  modes  of  treatment,  in  his 
opinion  best  suited  to  the  purpose. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  flower,  animal, 
and  still  life  painting  came  into  fashion. 
The  Tosa  masters  never  learned  to  equal 
the  Chinese  in  the  faithful  reproduction 
of  the  hair  of  a  beast,  of  the  down  of 
feathers,  the  veining  of  petals,  or  the  dust 
on  a  butterfly’s  wing,  but  they  gave  play 


52 


JAPANESE  ART 


to  a  fancy  of  their  own,  and  added 
charms,  which  the  miniaturists  of  the 
Celestial  Kingdom  had  never  dreamt  of. 

In  the  beginning,  satisfied  with  closely 
and  minutely  imitating  natural  objects,  and 
creating  a  pictorial  illusion,  as  far  as  that 
is  possible  without  the  application  of  light 
and  shade,  they  soon  strove  for  a  less  con¬ 
ventional  treatment,  which,  several  cen¬ 
turies  later,  developed  into  the  decorative 
style,  absolutely  individual  with  the  Japa¬ 
nese,  which  rather  suggests  than  imitates 
the  external  facts  of  nature.  At  the  start, 
their  attempts  were  very  feeble,  almost 
childish.  They  were  seriously  handi¬ 
capped  by  the  literature  of  regulations, 
regular  codes  laid  down  by  savants ,  as  to 
how  subjects  should  be  represented,  but 
the  idea  that  the  movement  of  plants, 
their  peculiar  way  of  standing  in  the  air, 
etc.,  were  more  important  for  the  general 
appearance  of  objects  than  a  mere  study 


Late  Tosa  School.  —  Orchard  in  Spring. 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


53 


of  form  and  texture,  gradually  induced 
them  to  break  away  from  formalism. 
They  tried  to  imbue  a  fragment  of  nature, 
uninteresting  in  itself,  with  a  poetical  idea. 
In  the  representation  of  a  basket  of  moun¬ 
tain  flowers,  for  instance,  they  ventured 
to  introduce  the  poetic  suggestion  of  a 
mountain  in  the  background.  These 
experiments  resulted,  many  centuries  later, 
in  the  combination  of  panoramic  views 
with  ostentatious  details,  as  practised  by 
Okyo  and  other  masters,  who  used  the 
delicate  structure  of  a  flower  or  plant  as 
foreground,  and  connected  the  latter  with 
the  landscape  behind  it  by  a  few  broad 
effects  or  a  wilful  emptiness. 

If  a  Japanese  wishes  to  give  the  impres¬ 
sion  of  an  orchard  in  spring,  he  does  not 
paint  the  whole  scene  as  a  Western 
painter  would  do,  but  simply  suggests  it  by 
a  twig  in  delicate  bloom,  with  the  graceful 
silhouette  of  a  waning  moon  behind  it. 


54 


JAPANESE  ART 


The  Tosa  school  gave  the  first  impulse 
toward  this  conciseness  of  expression, 
which  is  also  a  characteristic  of  Japanese 
poetry,  which  has  reached  in  the  haikai ,  a 
stanzaf  consisting  of  seventeen  syllables, 
its  extreme  limit  of  brevity. 

Although  no  great  qualities  can  be 
claimed  for  these  poetical  forms,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  Japanese  poets  have 
made  the  most  of  their  slender  resources. 
It  is  wonderful  what  melody  and  true  sen¬ 
timent  they  have  managed  to  compress 
within  these  narrow  limits.  In  the  same 
manner  the  Japanese  painters  learnt  to  pro¬ 
duce  a  truly  admirable  effect  by  a  few  dex¬ 
terous  strokes  of  the  brush.  The  masters 
of  the  Tosa  school,  however,  recognized 
this  only  theoretically.  They  had  not  yet 
the  calligraphic  dexterity  to  practise  it. 

The  school  has  become  famous  for  its 
conscientious  details,  the  elegance  and 
beauty  of  its  lines  and  touches,  for  its 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


55 


brilliant  and  harmonious  colouring,  which 
reminds  one  of  Persian  emaille  painting. 

The  brightest  and  the  strongest  hues, 
red,  blue,  green,  white,  and  gold,  are  em¬ 
ployed  in  all  their  intensity.  The  greater 
part  of  the  space  to  be  covered  is  broken 
up  by  variegated  daubs  and  patches,  while 
some  broad  mass  of  leading  colour  is 
always  interposed  at  definite  intervals  to 
impart  solidity  to  the  whole. 

Their  works,  virile  and  melodramatic  as 
they  are  at  times,  are  full  of  grace  and 
beauty  and  seem  the  natural  manifestation 
of  serene,  contented,  and  happy  minds. 
Their  gift  of  colour,  fragrant  and  fragile 
as  plum  and  cherry  trees  in  bloom,  is  all 
their  own.  And  it  is  this  exquisite  gift 
of  theirs  which  constitutes  the  principal 
charm  of  their  work.  Fine  and  true 
though  their  feeling  for  beauty  and  flow 
of  lines  will  always  be  found,  their  compo¬ 
sition  is  somewhat  awkward.  But  in 


56 


JAPANESE  ART 


colour  they  never  strike  a  false  note.  In 
their  exquisite  blending  of  tints,  one  can 
easily  read  the  delight  in  all  loveliness 
which  characterized  that  particular  part  of 
their  history,  shadowed  only  now  and  then 
by  strange  misgivings  one  feels  in  their 
work,  when  they  depict  the  blood-stained 
life  of  the  daimyos.  In  these  pictures  the 
artists  seem  conscious  of  the  doom  that 
hung  over  the  feudal  time,  and  this 
knowledge  clouded  their  delineations,  giv¬ 
ing  them  a  strange  fascination  that  is 
irresistible. 

Religious  painting  had  not  ceased  to 
exist,  but  Buddhism  had  greatly  changed. 
It  aspired  to  worldly  power,  and  the  three 
thousand  monasteries  which  at  this  time 
dotted  the  slopes  of  Hiyeisan,  a  mountain 
northeast  of  Kyoto,  were  a  very  material 
embodiment  of  Buddhist  influence.  Not 
content  with  mere  spiritual  weapons,  the 
inmates  of  these  establishments  were 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


57 


always  ready  on  the  smallest  provocation 
to  don  armour  over  their  monastic  frocks 
and  troop  down  to  the  streets  of  Kyoto,  to 
place  their  swords  on  whatever  scale  of 
the  politics  of  the  day  seemed  to  them 
most  expedient.  A  priesthood  to  whom 
a  practical  knowledge  of  war  and  warlike 
accomplishments  was  vital  was  not  con¬ 
ducive  to  the  production  of  important 
religious  paintings. 

The  Japanese  nobleman,  moreover,  had 
more  than  a  mere  tolerance  for  other 
creeds.  Although  in  the  main  either 
a  Buddhist  or  Shintoist,  he  also  took 
more  than  an  ordinary  interest  in  the 
Confucian  moral  philosophy  and  even  in 
Taoism,  that  mass  of  vague  speculation, 
attributed  to  Laotze  and  his  disciple 
Chwang  Chow. 

The  primitive  style  of  Kanaoka  conse¬ 
quently  languished.  Temples,  of  course, 
were  built ;  all  sorts  of  mythological  crea- 


58 


JAPANESE  ART 


tures  carved  out  of  huge  blocks  of  wood, 
and  colossal  figures  of  Buddha  con¬ 
structed,  but  the  painters,  either  retained 
by  the  daimyos  or  roaming  about  in  a 
vagrom  way  from  castle  to  castle,  began 
to  look  at  Buddhism  in  a  somewhat  cyn¬ 
ical  way,  and  depicted  the  deities  in  a 
rather  disrespectful  manner.  They  be¬ 
came  satirists,  like  Lucian  in  his  “  Dia¬ 
logues  of  the  Gods.” 

The  castle  of  the  feudal  lord  became  to 
the  artist  what  the  monastery  had  been 
before.  He  became  one  of  the  daimyo’s 
retainers,  and  was  clothed,  fed,  and  lodged 
by  him,  the  only  return  expected  from 
him  being  the  production  of  the  best  work 
in  his  power.  And,  although  the  daimyos 
often  fought  for  years  at  a  time  in  the 
very  streets  of  Kyoto,  setting  fire  to 
temples  and  reducing  to  ashes  many  of 
the  art  treasures  which  were  once  the 
glory  of  the  ancient  capital,  the  artists 


THE  FEUDAL  PERIOD 


59 


could  work  in  perfect  security  behind  the 
castle  walls,  and  dream  their  twilight 
dreams,  all  fragrant  with  the  flowers  of 
nature  and  art.  The  Japanese  artist  led 
an  ideal  existence,  simply  living  for  art’s 
sake.  Many  of  their  greatest  painters 
may  be  said  to  have  known  nothing  of 
money. 

With  this  golden  leisure  and  freedom 
from  care,  their  power  was  increased  ten¬ 
fold ;  and  thus  has  been  developed  not 
merely  a  patience  altogether  marvellous 
in  the  most  minute  and  complete  finish¬ 
ing  of  every  detail,  not  merely  a  technical 
excellence  seldom  equalled  and  never  sur¬ 
passed,  but  a  power  of  delineating  life, 
and  a  sensitiveness  to  decorative  and 
emotional  suggestion,  which  placed  the 
Japanese  in  the  front  rank  of  the  artists 
of  any  age  or  country. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  RENAISSANCE 
The  Kano  School  (1400-1750) 

N  misty  mornings  in  spring,  the 
Dai-mouji  Mountain,  which 
stands  just  back  of  the  “Silver 
Temple”  at  the  east  side  of  Kyoto,  looks 
exactly  like  a  massive  silver  hieroglyphic. 
The  mountain  bears  upon  its  slope  a 
peculiar  artificial  landmark,  resembling 
the  Chinese  character  signifying  “  dai,”  or 
great,  formed  by  a  series  of  excavations, 
in  which  the  snow  still  lingers,  while  the 
surface  of  the  mountain  is  bare. 

This  colossal  character  of  white  snow 
might  readily  be  taken  as  a  symbol  of 

Japanese  art,  for  the  manipulation  of  the 
60 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


61 


painter’s  brush  is  strictly  calligraphic. 
Japanese  writing  in  itself  is  a  sort  of 
painting.  Some  of  the  characters  of  the 
written  language  resemble  the  trees  and 
bridge  posts  as  drawn  by  certain  artists. 
And  do  not  the  gateways  of  the  Japanese 
temples  —  these  quaint  constructions,  con¬ 
sisting  of  two  pillars  that  support  horizon¬ 
tally  a  lintel  with  projecting  ends  and  a 
tie  beam  —  remind  one  involuntarily  of 
some  colossal  Chinese  letter,  which  has 
been  painted  against  the  sky  with  four 
sweeps  of  vermilion  by  a  giant  brush  ? 

The  child,  learning  to  write,  draws 
these  pictorial  signs  with  a  brush,  hold¬ 
ing  the  paper,  which  is  absorbent,  in  his 
hand.  Thus,  the  whole  arm  works,  motion 
being  got  from  the  shoulder,  the  elbow, 
and  the  wrist  alike.  One  can  readily 
imagine  what  influence  this  method  of 
writing  has  in  fostering  the  power  of  a 
child  to  seize  the  outlines  of  natural  form. 


62 


JAPANESE  ART 


It  learns  unconsciously  to  draw  with  a 
free  hand.  Our  children  learn  to  write 
with  a  hard  pen  or  pencil ;  and  with  the 
same  hard  point  they  make  their  first 
attempts  at  drawing.  The  young  art 
student  suddenly  finds  a  yielding  brush 
placed  in  his  hand.  No  wonder  that  he 
is  awkward,  and  in  its  manipulation  abso¬ 
lutely  incapable  of  competing  with  a 
Japanese,  who  already  as  a  child  has 
learnt  the  value  of  touches. 

The  calligraphic  dexterity,  as  displayed, 
for  instance,  in  the  cranes  of  Saitoshy,  is 
an  inheritance  with  the  Japanese  artist. 
His  fingers  work  almost  mechanically,  as 
he  delineates  a  flying  bird,  the  vegetation 
of  mountains,  the  colours  of  the  sea,  the 
shape  of  branches,  or  the  spring-burst  of 
flowers.  Generations  of  skilled  workmen 
have  given  him  their  cunning,  and  revive 
in  the  marvels  of  his  brush  work.  What 
was  conscious  effort  in  the  beginning 


THE  RENAISSANCE  63 

became  unconscious,  instinctive,  almost 
automatic,  in  later  centuries. 

At  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
the  Chinese  were  still  the  foremost  painters 
of  the  Eastern  world.  China  reached  its 
prime  during  the  Sung  dynasty  (961-1280). 
It  had  been  an  era  as  conspicuous  for 
the  development  of  great  individualities, 
innovating  statesmen,  constructive  phi¬ 
losophers,  inspired  poets,  and  original 
artists,  as  that  of  any  period  of  European 
civilization. 

No  wonder  that  a  great  wave  of  Chinese 
influence  passed  over  the  Japanese  islands, 
deeply  affecting  it  in  every  conceivable 
way.  Not  only  laws  and  sciences,  but 
the  material  civilization,  and,  most  of  all, 
the  thoughts  of  the  nation,  as  expressed 
in  its  philosophy  and  literature,  profited 
by  Chinese  teaching  and  example. 

Inspired  by  the  great  artists  of  Hang¬ 
chow,  a  new  school,  with  the  aim  of  tech- 


64 


JAPANESE  ART 


nically  equalling  the  Chinese  masters, 
was  founded,  destined  very  soon  to  sur¬ 
pass  the  former  native  schools  in  merit 
and  renown.  In  Kanaoka’s  time,  the 
painters  had  devoted  themselves  princi¬ 
pally  to  the  representation  of  gods  and 
heroes ;  during  the  feudal  period  warfare 
and  still  life  had  become  the  leading  sub¬ 
jects  ;  now  animals  and  landscapes  came 
more  in  evidence. 

The  figure  painter,  Cho  Densu  (1351  — 
1427),  also  known  by  the  name  Meitshyo, 
and  his  two  pupils,  Josetsou  and  Shubun, 
who  in  turn  had  two  pupils,  Sotan  and 
Kano  Massanobu,  were  the  principal  in¬ 
stigators  of  the  movement.  As  each  of 
these  men  taught,  there  existed  for  a  few 
years,  as  rivals  of  the  Tosa  school,  almost 
as  many  distinct  schools.  But,  if  the 
chiefs  differed  from  one  another  in  the 
nature  of  their  genius,  they  had  adopted 
the  same  manner,  the  same  subjects,  the 


I 


Motonobu  (Kano  School).  —  Mountain 


c 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


65 


same  general  principles ;  so  that  they  soon 
became  blended  into  one  school  —  the 
school  of  Kano.  The  leading  character¬ 
istic  of  this  school  was  the  absolute  sub¬ 
ordination  of  colour  to  design. 

In  the  beginning,  the  school  was  de¬ 
voted  entirely  to  black  and  white,  with  an 
occasional  use  of  bistre  or  some  other  faint 
colour  as  uniting  half-tone.  In  its  later 
development,  it  made  use  of  colour,  and 
tried  to  rival  the  Tosa  painters  in  a  lavish 
application  of  gold  and  brilliant  tints.  It 
can  even  be  said  that  in  Yeitaku  and 
Korin  the  Kano  school  produced  colour¬ 
ists  almost  as  great  as  Nobuzane  in  the 
thirteenth  century. 

Cho  Densu,  a  Kyoto  priest,  was  the 
great  revivalist  of  the  Kanaoka  school. 
He  devoted  himself  entirely  to  sacerdotal 
art.  He  was  one  of  the  few  Japanese 
painters  who  attempted  pictures  of  a 
heroic  size.  His  “  Death  of  Sakia,”  still 


66 


JAPANESE  ART 


existing  at  one  of  the  Kyoto  temples, 
and  copied  innumerable  times  by  artists 
to  this  very  day,  measures  about  nine  by 
thirteen  feet  It  is  considered  by  native 
critics  as  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  an¬ 
cient  art,  and  favourably  impresses  one  by 
the  breadth  of  its  composition,  the  firm¬ 
ness  of  its  brush  work,  the  harmony  of  its 
colour,  and  the  grandeur  of  its  sentiments. 
Cho  Densu’s  work,  although  inferior  to 
Kanaoka  in  line  conception,  is  as  pro¬ 
found  and  highly  intellectual  in  achieve¬ 
ment  as  anything  ever  produced  by  a 
Japanese  brush.  It  almost  rises  to  sub¬ 
limity. 

Very  little  is  known  of  Josetsou,  except 
that  he  was  a  Chinese  by  birth,  and  a 
priest  for  many  years  previous  to  his 
taking  up  landscape  painting  as  a  pro¬ 
fession. 

Of  his  fellow  student,  Shubun,  on  the 
other  hand,  many  examples  have  remained, 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


67 


which  prove  him  to  be  a  great  technician. 
He  abolished  the  use  of  the  fine,  round, 
and  pointed  brushes  of  the  Tosa  school, 
and  constructed  brushes  with  broader  and 
flatter  surfaces.  He  had  a  powerful,  vital 
touch,  full  of  personality.  His  line,  a  di¬ 
rect  outcome  of  the  study  of  Wutaotz, 
celebrated'  as  the  greatest  painter  of 
China,  varied  with  each  object  drawn, 
without  losing  the  strength  and  boldness 
of  his  own  individuality.  He  tried  to  sug¬ 
gest  with  every  stroke  of  his  brush  the 
leading  line-characteristics  of  houses,  rocks, 
trees,  marsh  grass,  etc. 

His  pupils,  Sotan  and  Kano  Massa- 
nobu,  perfected  his  methods,  and  Saomi 
wrote  a  hand-book  on  painting  which  has 
become  classical. 

Another  great  man  of  this  movement, 
according  to  native  authority,  was  Ses- 
shin  (1421-1507).  A  biographer  informs 
us  that: 


68 


JAPANESE  ART 


“  He  did  not  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  ancients,  but  developed  a  style 
peculiar  to  himself.  His  power  was  great¬ 
est  in  landscape,  after  which  he  excelled 
most  in  figures,  then  in  flowers  and  birds ; 
and  he  was  also  skilful  in  the  delineation 
of  oxen,  horses,  dragons,  and  tigers.  In 
drawing  figures  and  animals,  he  com¬ 
pleted  his  sketch  with  a  single  stroke 
of  the  brush,  and  of  this  style  of  working 
he  is  considered  the  originator.” 

He  painted  on  white  silk  panels,  toned 
down  to  a  light  brown  tinge,  exclusively 
with  Chinese  ink.  His  work  is  remark¬ 
able  for  leaving  certain  portions  of  his 
pictures  entirely  unpainted.  He  arrived 
at  great  perfection  in  this  style,  and  often, 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  neck  and  breast  of 
a  bird,  gave  the  illusion  of  modelling  by 
means  of  an  entire  absence  of  touches. 
In  his  winter  landscapes,  he  made  use  of 
the  silk  ground  itself  to  give  a  faithful 


THE  RENAISSANCE  69 

rendering  of  the  whiteness  of  snow,  cover¬ 
ing  trees  and  roofs. 

In  his  earlier  years  he  went  to  China, 
and,  full  of  zeal,  sought  a  teacher  among 
their  most  renowned  masters.  His  dex¬ 
terity  astonished  the  Chinese  artists,  who 
found  but  little  to  teach  him.  He  was 
ordered  to  the  court  at  Peking  to  paint 
before  the  emperor,  and,  to  the  great  sur¬ 
prise  of  the  sovereign,  he  produced  upon 
a  piece  of  silk  a  dragon,  surrounded  with 
clouds,  with  three  or  four  splashes  of  his 
brush.  Disgusted  with  the  instruction 
he  had  received,  he  returned  to  his  native 
land,  resolved  to  take  in  the  future  lessons 
only  from  the  mountains,  rivers,  and  trees. 
And  it  is  especially  in  mountains,  rivers, 
and  trees  that  his  disciples  followed  his 
lead.  His  line  is  angular  and  rugged, 
vibrating  with  the  nervous  force  of  the 
artist’s  hand. 

The  subjects  preferred  by  the  Kano 


7o 


JAPANESE  ART 


masters  were  the  portraits  of  legendary- 
personages,  romantic  landscapes,  soi-disant 
Chinese,  and  animals  and  plants,  generally 
endowed  with  a  symbolical  or  emblematic 
meaning.  Saints  of  all  orders  find  their 
place  in  the  works  of  the  Kano  school, 
but  instead  of  mystic  beings,  throned  in 
ethereal  regions,  they  show  us  a  succes¬ 
sion  of  gods,  belonging  to  the  common 
round  of  life,  or  affecting  asceticism  which 
appears  far  from  austere. 

The  Kano  school  at  the  start  had  no 
reformatory  aspirations.  It  was  simply 
meant  for  a  return  to  the  religious  period. 
Cho  Densu  endeavoured  honestly  to  paint 
in  the  manner  of  the  early  Buddhistic 
painters,  and  to  see  life  through  primitive 
eyes.  But  the  school,  as  is  generally  the 
case  with  revival  movements,  proved  to 
be  a  renaissance. 

The  fifteenth  century,  when  Sesshin 
and  Kano  Massanobu  painted,  is  con- 


i 


Massanobu. 


; 


■  . 


; 

■' 

s’  .  AV  SU 

.  • 


Portrait  of  the  Actor,  Ichikawa  Danjuro 


mmmm- 


'&'$L 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


71 


sidered  the  purest,  the  most  classical 
period  of  Japanese  art.  It  was  one  of 
those  supreme  occasions  when  the  human 
soul,  raising  itself  for  a  brief  period  to 
rare  heights  of  fusion,  has  struck  out  at  a 
white  heat  for  the  revelation  of  pure  art. 

The  opponents  of  this  school,  of  course, 
reproached  it  for  the  almost  superstitious 
respect  its  artists  paid  to  Chinese  art  and 
Chinese  civilization  in  general.  But  these 
painters’  adoration  for  China  was  merely  a 
pretext  for  their  own  idealization  of  art. 
They  had  their  own  ideals  ready  in  their 
minds,  but  found  it  necessary  to  fortify 
themselves  with  a  code  of  precise  rules, 
and,  as  China  could  furnish  them,  they 
went  to  the  painters  of  the  Hangchow 
period  for  inspiration  and  instruction. 
And  there  is  no  doubt  that,  without  the 
Chinese  influence,  that  vigour  of  lines, 
that  spontaneity  of  touch,  which  reveals 
the  painter  more  plainly  than  the  object 


72 


JAPANESE  ART 


painted,  which  appeals  to  the  manlier  side 
of  one’s  nature,  which,  like  a  simple  verse 
of  Omar,  knocks  the  gate  of  the  king¬ 
dom  of  mystery  ajar,  so  that  one’s  imagina¬ 
tion  might  tiptoe  and  take  a  peep  into  the 
mystic  beyond,  would  have  been  dwarfed 
in  the  Japanese  painter. 

Let  me  now  try  to  initiate  my  reader 
into  a  few  of  the  technical  mysteries  of 
the  artist’s  profession,  which  is  the  leading 
characteristic  of  this  school.  The  Japa¬ 
nese  painter  easily  could  carry  all  his 
worldly  artistic  goods  in  a  handkerchief, 
and  has  done  so  invariably,  even  to  this 
very  day. 

There  is  first  a  small  roll  made  of  fine 
bamboo,  which  serves  as  porte-crayon,  in 
which  are  brushes  of  various  sizes;  then 
the  Chinese  ink-dish ;  three  or  four  small 
bowls  in  which  the  colours  are  mixed,  one 
for  each  colour;  two  or  three  small  parcels 
containing  fresh  supplies  of  paint;  two 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


73 


large  bowls  of  water,  a  plate,  and  a  piece 
of  paper  laid  out  upon  the  floor.  In  the 
parcels  are  some  small  sticks  of  brown 
and  indigo,  some  red  dye,  a  lump  of  gam¬ 
boge,  and  a  quantity  of  small  white  pel¬ 
lets.  These  colours,  with  the  Chinese 
ink,  make  up  the  palette.  The  white  is 
only  mixed  just  before  being  used,  and 
considerable  skill  is  necessary  both  in  the 
nlixing  and  the  use  of  it.  The  pellets  are 
first  crushed  and  ground  very  fine  with  a 
small  glass  pestle,  and  then  mixed  with 
melted  gelatine,  the  whole,  with  a  little 
water,  being  afterward  ground  and  rubbed 
into  a  thick  paste  till  all  traces  of  grit 
have  disappeared.  The  pigment  thus 
prepared  is  quite  useless  when  it  once 
becomes  dry  and  hard ;  it  has,  therefore, 
to  be  mixed  afresh  for  every  picture ; 
but  to  the  care  with  which  it  is  prepared 
are  due  both  its  brilliancy  and  its  perma¬ 
nence  in  the  picture.  This  durability  is 


74 


JAPANESE  ART 


essential,  as  the  pictures  are  kept  rolled, 
and  it  is  only  after  very  many  years  of 
rolling  and  unrolling  that  the  white  be¬ 
gins  to  show  signs  of  perishing  or  peel¬ 
ing.  The  power  of  manipulating  white, 
not  in  simple  body  colour  only,  but  in 
thin  washes,  is  an  inheritance  from  the 
Chinese.  Those  who  are  familiar  with 
the  oldest  Buddhist  pictures  will  be  famil¬ 
iar  with  the  filmy  veil  which  often  falls 
from  the  head  of  a  divinity,  and  is  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  thinnest  possible  wash  of 
white  laid  on  over  all  the  other  colours, 
without  blur  or  running  of  any  kind. 

The  paper  is  slightly  toned,  and  made 
in  small  pieces  about  the  size  of  a  sheet 
of  foolscap.  If  larger  pieces  are  required 
they  are  joined  with  rice  paste.  It  is  in 
the  rapidly  absorbent  quality  of  this  paper 
that  Japanese  artists  have  found  most  of 
their  difficulties,  and  it  is  from  the  methods 
adopted  to  overcome  these  difficulties  that 


THE  RENAISSANCE  75 

most  of  the  essential  characteristics  of 
Japanese  art  have  sprung.  The  absorb- 
ence  is  midway  between  blotting  and 
unglazed  papers;  what  has  to  be  done 
must,  therefore,  be  done  quickly;  correc¬ 
tions  are  almost  impossible. 

Also  washes  of  colour  as  executed  by 
our  Western  water-colours  are  out  of  the 
question.  But  the  Japanese  gets  at  grada¬ 
tions  of  colour  in  his  own  way.  The 
peculiar  shape  of  the  brushes  enable  a 
supply  of  water  to  be  held  in  reserve  at 
the  hinge,  the  full  tone  required  only 
being  taken  up  at  the  point.  The  side  of 
a  feather,  for  instance,  is  being  drawn. 
Directly  the  gradation  is  wanted,  a  little 
pressure  brings  the  thicker  part  of  the 
brush  into  play,  the  water  escapes,  and 
shades  off  the  tone  to  the  required  light¬ 
ness.  A  regular  trick  is  used  in  painting 
a  melting  mist  around  the  moon.  To  get 
this,  the  circle  of  the  moon  is  struck  in 


76 


JAPANESE  ART 


with  a  compass,  one  leg  of  which  holds 
a  brush  full  of  water.  This  is  passed 
around  the  silhouette  of  the  moon, 
whereby  any  hard  line  is  prevented.  The 
fleecy  cloud  which  obscures  the  moon 
is  obtained  by  first  damping  the  whole 
sheet  of  paper,  and  putting  on  washes 
of  water,  colour,  and  again  water  before 
it  is  quite  dry. 

It  is  obvious,  however,  that  with  these 
methods  very  little  colour  can  be  used, 
and  thence  come  these  pale,  misty  moon¬ 
light  effects  with  which  we  are  so  fa¬ 
miliar. 

The  semi-absorbent  quality  of  the  paper 
has  compensated  for  the  many  difficulties 
which  are  set  in  the  artist’s  path  in  two 
ways:  to  the  lines,  drawn  with  a  brush 
full  of  Chinese  ink,  it  imparts  a  certain 
crispness,  and,  moreover,  it  compels  rapid 
work,  which  necessity  has  produced  a  cer¬ 
tainty  of  touch  and  a  dexterity  of  exe- 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


77 


cution,  wherein  lies  much  of  the  secret 
of  the  motion  which  Japanese  artists  so 
greatly  excel  in  portraying. 

The  pictures  are,  however,  invariably 
painted  on  silk  prepared  for  work  by 
being  rubbed  over  with  a  fine  powder, 
which  makes  the  surface  very  much  like 
that  of  the  paper. 

The  brushes  are,  of  course,  of  various 
sizes,  but  those  with  which  the  ordinary 
black  and  white  pictures  are  painted  are 
about  the  thickness  of  the  little  finger  at 
the  hinge,  with  hair  about  an  inch  and  a 
quarter  long  and  running  to  an  exceed¬ 
ingly  fine  point.  This  peculiar  construc¬ 
tion  allows  the  finest  as  well  as  the 
broadest  strokes  to  be  executed  with  the 
same  brush. 

And  now,  having  described  his  mate¬ 
rials,  let  us  see  the  artist  at  work.  The 
paper  lies  on  the  floor,  with  weights  at 
the  four  corners.  The  artist  kneels  in 


78 


JAPANESE  ART 


front  of  it.  The  usual  position  of  the 
brush  is  perpendicular  to  the  paper,  the 
thumb  pressing  it  firmly  against  the  first 
joint  of  the  second  finger  and  the  third 
joint  of  the  first  finger  close  to  the 
middle  joint.  The  first  finger  itself 
presses  lightly  against  the  brush  and 
helps  to  guide  it;  the  little  finger  rests 
on  the  paper,  and  the  left  hand  is  placed 
below  the  right  wrist  as  a  rest ;  when  a 
freer  play  of  the  arm  is  necessary,  both 
rests  are  withdrawn.  The  brush  is  held 
very  long,  the  fingers  being  usually  three 
to  four  inches  from  the  paper ;  when  the 
strokes  are  very  bold,  the  brush  is  often 
held  at  the  end.  The  axis  of  the  lines 
is  therefore  either  at  the  point  of  the  little 
finger,  the  wrist,  the  shoulder,  or  the  knee. 
In  drawing  large  subjects,  the  whole  body 
is  moved  and  becomes  the  reticulated 
joint,  working  from  the  knee  as  a  ful¬ 


crum. 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


79 


The  students  did  not  draw  from  nature, 
but  devoted  day  in  and  day  out  during  an 
apprenticeship  of  eight  years  to  a  most 
exacting  study  of  old  masters.  The 
student  began  by  making  a  careful  study 
of  some  picture,  by  a  Chinese  master  like 
Mokke  or  Bunjin  Jen,  after  which  he 
made  several  copies  from  his  own  copy, 
and,  when  he  had  made  himself  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  every  detail  and  every 
stroke  of  the  original,  he  made  a  final 
copy  which  was  submitted  to  the  teacher’s 
judgment.  Then  the  next  picture  was 
treated  in  the  same  way ;  then  the  next, 
and  so  on. 

These  repetitions  of  the  same  subject 
may  be  vain  from  view-point  of  originality, 
from  the  view-point  of  accuracy  their  value 
can  hardly  be  overrated.  This  method  of 
instruction  has  been  carefully  worked  out 
to  the  smallest  detail,  and  made  subject  to 
rule.  For  every  line  in  a  bird’s  back  or 


8o 


JAPANESE  ART 


claw,  a  certain  position  of  the  hand  and 
a  certain  inclination  of  the  brush  have 
been  found  to  be  necessary,  and  they 
must  be  learnt,  acquired,  and  remem¬ 
bered.  The  curves  and  swells  cannot  be 
accomplished  in  any  other  way.  For  every 
broad  mark  in  the  body  or  the  wing,  a 
certain  intensity  of  colour  at  the  point  of 
the  brush  and  a  certain  quantity  of  water 
to  be  held  in  reserve  at  the  hinge,  a  cer¬ 
tain  pressure  of  the  fingers  holding  the 
brush  and  a  certain  motion  of  the  entire 
arm,  are  necessary,  or  the  colour  will  not 
shade  off  properly,  and  there  will  be  a 
series  of  hard  smudges  instead  of  ani¬ 
mated  feathers.  There  is  no  other  way 
of  getting  these  feathers,  just  as  there  are 
no  other  lines  which  will  tell  so  simply  of 
the  bird’s  flight  in  the  air.  And  as  the 
desired  accuracy,  to  which  a  hairbreadth’s 
deviation  of  a  line  proves  fatal,  can  only 
be  acquired  by  practice,  the  long  appren- 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


81 


ticeship  entirely  devoted  to  a  free  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  brush  explains  itself.  But 
when  these  and  a  hundred  of  other 
minute  instructions  are  learnt  and  re¬ 
membered —  and  he  has  to  learn  and 
master  them  until  every  trick  and  device 
has  become  second  nature  to  his  hand  — 
the  student  may  paint  a  bird  cleaving  the 
air  as  well  as  any  master. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  such  minute 
training  lops  off  ruthlessly  all  buds  of 
genius  but  the  very  strongest,  and  that 
the  artists  who  survive  are  few  and  far 
between.  But  those  who  do  survive  are 
veritable  wizards  of  the  brush.  No  Euro¬ 
pean  master,  to  be  sure,  can  vie  with 
them  in  putting  so  much  information,  life, 
and  humour  into  the  same  space  of  paper 
with  so  small  an  expenditure  of  labour. 
None  of  our  water-colourists  can  realize 
with  a  few  marvellous  strokes,  dabs,  and 
sweeps  of  the  brush  such  astonishing  re- 


82 


JAPANESE  ART 


suits  as  Motonobu  (the  son  of  Massa- 
nobu),  Sauraku,  Yeitoku,  Takonobu, 
known  as  the  father  of  three  great  paint¬ 
ers,  Tanyu,  Naonobu,  and  Yasunobu, 
better  known  as  Yeishi,  and  Tchiokuvan, 
whose  delineations  of  birds,  in  pure  black 
and  white  without  any  gradations,  remind 
one  involuntarily  of  Diirer’s  woodcuts. 

Motonobu  (1452-1490)  was  a  most 
vigorous  manipulator  of  the  brush.  He 
could  give  the  effect  and  general  appear¬ 
ance  of  any'  object  with  a  few  strokes  of 
the  brush,  but  each  stroke  tells,  and  each 
curve  has  a  meaning.  This  capacity  of 
expressing  much  with  very  little  apparent 
effort  is  shown  in  the  figure  of  a  bird 
perched  on  a  melon.  A  few  strokes  ex¬ 
press  the  turn  of  the  bird’s  body,  and  the 
shape  of  the  fruit. 

But  if  any  man  should  ever  be  envied 
for  the  felicity  and  precision  with  which 
he  handled  his  brush,  it  is  Tanyu  (1601- 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


83 


1674),  the  greatest  technician  of  them  all.. 
He  was  the  impressionistic  delineator  of 
horses,  of  dragons,  submarine  creatures, 
and  various  beasts  of  the  mythological 
zoology.  His  masterpiece,  four  lions 
painted  in  Chinese  ink  on  wooden  panels, 
can  still  be  seen  at  the  temple  of  Nikko. 
Also  his  two  coloured  dragons  at  the 
principal  gateway  of  the  same  temple 
have  aroused  the  admiration  of  many  a 
connoisseur.  A  collection  of  his  prin¬ 
cipal  works,  published  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  gives  a  fair  idea  of  his 
remarkable  talent.  He  was  a  virtuoso  of 
curves.  His  style  can  be  recognized  at 
the  first  glance  by  the  peculiar  slap-dash 
quality  of  his  line.  The  suggestiveness 
of  his  line,  sometimes  ranging  from  hair¬ 
breadth  to  the  width  of  an  inch,  has  never 
been  surpassed.  He  could  draw  a  horse 
in  three  or  four  sweeps  of  the  brush ;  the 
body  of  a  crane  he  realized  in  two  strokes, 


84 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  he  seldom  used  more  than  three  or 
four  dozen  lines  to  finish  an  entire  pic¬ 
ture. 

Japanese  art  was  now  in  the  possession 
of  many  of  its  leading  characteristics,  as 
the  calligraphic  dexterity  of  brush  work, 
the  wilful  neglect  or  exaggeration  of 
detail,  the  grotesque  division  of  space, 
and  the  economic  manipulation  of  back¬ 
grounds  which  apparently  look  empty,  and 
yet  enhance  the  pictorial  aspect  to  a  rare 
degree.  Also  another  quality,  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  all,  namely,  the 
principle  of  repetition  with  slight  varia¬ 
tion,  had  successfully  been  put  into  use. 

This  peculiarity  of  composition  pos¬ 
sesses  the  principal  elements  of  pictorial 
art.  Its  object  is  not  to  execute  a  perfect 
imitation  of  reality  (only  bad  works  of  art 
do  that)  or  a  poetic  resemblance  of  life 
(as  our  best  painters  produce),  but  merely 
a  commentary  on  some  pictorial  vision, 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


85 


which  sets  the  mind  to  think  and  dream. 
If  the  Japanese  artist  wants  to  depict  a 
flight  of  cranes,  he  draws  a  half-dozen  or 
more,  which  at  the  first  glance  look  alike, 
but  which  on  closer  scrutiny  are  each  en¬ 
dowed  with  an  individuality  of  their  own. 
He  foregoes  perspective  and  all  other 
expedients;  he  simply  represents  them  in 
clear  outlines  in  a  diagonal  line  or  sweep¬ 
ing  curve  on  an  empty  background,  and 
relies  for  his  effect  upon  the  repetition  of 
forms.  A  Western  artist  would  expand 
this,  at  least,  into  a  picture  with  a  land¬ 
scape  or  cloud  effect  as  background ;  to 
the  Japanese  artist,  working  in  the  narrow 
bounds  prescribed  by  custom  and  tradi¬ 
tion,  all  such  attempts  would  appear 
futile ;  he  knows  that  such  an  event  can¬ 
not  be  expressed  more  forcibly  than  by 
simply  depicting  the  objects  with  only 
a  slight  variation  in  their  representation. 

The  first  form  introduces  us  to  the 


86 


JAPANESE  ART 


subject,  its  appearance  and  action;  the 
second  accentuates  the  same  impressions 
and  heightens  the  feeling  of  reality  by 
a  slight  variation  in  its  appearance  and 
action;  and  every  following  form,  resem¬ 
bling  at  the  first  glance  a  silhouette, 
is  simply  a  commentary  upon  the  pre¬ 
ceding  one ;  and  all  together  represent, 
so  to  say,  a  multiplication  of  the  original 
idea. 

And  in  the  same  manner  as  they  treat 
lines  and  masses,  they  vary  colour 
schemes,  which  often  resemble  each 
other,  but  are,  nevertheless,  endlessly 
varied  in  shade  and  line.  And  not  only 
the  elements  of  composition  are  guided 
by  the  law  of  repetition,  but  also  the  crea¬ 
tive  power  of  the  artists.  As  inexhaust¬ 
ible  as  it  seems,  one  will  find  that  they 
have  always  treated  certain  lines  of  sub¬ 
jects.  For  instance,  they  have  painted 
a  crow  sitting  on  a  snow-covered  fir 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


87 


branch,  with  the  full  moon  behind,  a 
thousand  times;  but  every  painter  who 
has  handled  the  subject  has  tried  to  lend 
it  a  new  individuality.  Only  the  subject 
remains  the  same.  Treatment  and  con¬ 
ception  are  invariably  changed  with  the 
personality  of  the  artist.  They  have  real¬ 
ized,  by  a  never  tiring  study  of  variation, 
that  a  beautiful  idea  always  remains  a 
beautiful  idea,  and  that  it  takes  as  much 
creative  power  to  lend  a  new  charm  to  an 
old  theme  as  to  produce  and  execute  an 
apparently  new  one,  which,  after  all,  may 
prove  an  old  one. 

The  year  1603  marks  the  beginning 
of  that  wonderful  political  organization 
known  as  the  Takugawa  Shogunate.  For 
years  the  local  nobles,  or  daimyos,  defy¬ 
ing  all  control  by  the  government,  had 
engaged  in  continual  struggles  with  one 
another  for  lands  and  power,  and  a  lament¬ 
able  condition  of  anarchy  had  been  the 


88 


JAPANESE  ART 


result.  Takigawa  Yyeyosu,  the  greatest 
warrior  and  statesman  Japan  has  seen, 
after  a  sharp  struggle,  which  ended  in 
the  defeat  of  his  opponents,  in  the  battle 
of  Sekighara,  finally  succeeded  to  the  su¬ 
preme  authority,  and  caused  himself  to 
be  appointed  Shogun  (z.  e.  regent)  by  the 
puppet  Mikado  of  the  day. 

By  the  organization  of  this  remarkable 
system  of  feudal  government,  —  the  dy¬ 
nasty  of  Shoguns  which  lasted  until  1867, 
—  under  which  the  nation  enjoyed  peace 
and  prosperity  for  two  and  a  half  centu¬ 
ries,  Yyeyosu  solved  for  his  day  and 
country  the  problem  which  will  occupy 
politicians  to  the  end  of  time,  of  the  due 
apportionment  of  control  and  local  author¬ 
ity.  At  no  previous  period  of  Japanese 
history  was  the  power  of  the  central  govern¬ 
ment  more  effectively  maintained  in  all  es¬ 
sential  matters,  although  in  other  respects 
the  daimyos  were  allowed  a  large  measure 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


89 


of  independent  action.  Under  this  re¬ 
gime  Japan  increased  amazingly  in  wealth 
and  population,  and  made  great  progress 
in  all  the  arts  and  civilization. 

As  a  consequence,  the  new  capital  of 
Yedo  (Tokyo)  rose  rapidly  to  importance. 
To  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen¬ 
tury,  the  old  city  of  Kyoto,  which  had 
always  enjoyed  the  presence  of  the  Mi¬ 
kado  and  his  palaces,  had  been  consid¬ 
ered  the  centre  of  culture  and  of  art,  but 
now  Yedo  became  her  rival,  and  gathered 
unto  her  all  the  fruits  of  learning,  of  liter¬ 
ature,  and  of  art.  The  daimyos  and  their 
retainers,  the  samurai,  compelled  by  regu¬ 
lation  to  live  a  part  of  the  year  in  Yedo, 
increasing  its  population  to  at  least  a 
million,  materially  helped  to  bring  about 
this  displacement  of  the  artistic  and  liter¬ 
ary  centre  of  Japan.  They  were  all  fond 
of  luxury  and  an  easy-going  life,  ever 
hungry  for  delights  of  the  eye  and  elegant 


9o 


JAPANESE  ART 


pleasures,  and  as  it  is  only  necessary  in 
this  accommodating  world  to  express  a 
need  when  somebody  provides  a  means  to 
satisfy  it,  the  new  city  was  soon  over¬ 
crowded  with  curio-shops,  workshops  of 
artisans,  and  artists’  studios. 

Kyoto  continued  to  be  a  place  of  some 
artistic  activity,  it  even  developed  an  ex¬ 
clusive  “  palace  literature  and  art,”  but 
Yedo  attracted  to  itself  all  the  rising 
talents  of  the  country,  and  became  the 
cradle  of  a  new  form  of  art.  The  higher 
degree  of  civilization,  which  was  rendered 
possible  by  an  improved  administration 
and  a  more  settled  government,  included 
a  far  more  widely  extended  system  of  edu¬ 
cation  than  the  country  had  ever  known 
before.  And  not  only  were  the  humbler 
classes  better  educated,  the  culture,  which 
for  so  many  years  had  belonged  almost 
exclusively  to  the  noble  and  knightly 
class,  had  worked  its  way  into  the  hum- 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


91 


bier  huts,  and  had  created  in  the  masses 
a  certain  appreciation  of  the  beautiful. 
They  also  had  grown  more  prosperous, 
and  could  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  buying 
books  and  works  of  art. 

Artists  no  longer  addressed  themselves 
exclusively  to  the  cultured  class,  but  the 
people  generally.  The  result  was  a  sin¬ 
gular  form  of  art,  vacillating  between  new 
and  old  ideals,  trying  to  please  the  com¬ 
mon  people  by  the  introduction  of  demo¬ 
cratic  elements,  without  offending  the 
nobler  class  of  society. 

They  began  to  paint  pictures  of  a 
popular  tendency,  like  the  “  Hundred 
Cranes  ”  and  “  Thousand  Carps,”  showing 
us  cranes  in  every  imaginable  position, 
flying,  fixed  in  the  air,  standing,  eating, 
swimming,  —  and  all  faultlessly  drawn,  — 
or  a  shoal  of  carp,  as  one  might  see 
it  through  the  glass  of  an  aquarium, 
floundering  about  it  in  all  kinds  of  posi- 


92 


JAPANESE  ART 


tions,  twisting  and  twirling  about,  and 
fading  away  in  the  distant  water. 

They  also  entered  the  field  of  carica¬ 
ture,  and  endowed  animals  and  inanimate 
objects  with  human  features.  They  rep¬ 
resent  tortoises  as  warriors  on  a  march. 
Delicious  is  the  rendering  of  the  clumsy 
reptiles’  efforts  to  run.  They  show  us 
a  group  of  frogs,  out  on  a  picnic.  Some 
have  on  hats,  some  carry  fans,  while 
others  smoke  and  dance  and  otherwise 
disport  themselves.  Another  picture 
shows  us  a  cat,  tortured  by  rats,  or  a 
man  dragged  in  bonds  by  wolves,  hares, 
rabbits,  etc.  Their  fox  pictures  are  also 
very  quaint,  parodying  as  they  do  a 
Japanese  marriage  and  other  functions 
of  social  life. 

It  was,  however,  not  before  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  that  regular 
schools  began  to  be  formed  which  broke 
away  from  the  traditionary  teachings  of 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


93 


the  followers  of  the  Tosa  and  Kano 
schools. 

The  age  of  the  Takugawa  Shogunate 
could  pride  itself  on  having  lent  en¬ 
couragement  to  three  distinct  schools  of 
painting,  and  a  fourth  one  that  just  came 
into  evidence.  The  Buddhistic  school 
had  no  great  exponent,  but  there  were 
still  many  men  who  adhered  to  Kanaoka’s 
and  Cho  Densu’s  principles. 

The  Tosa  school  was  represented  by 
the  miniaturist  Mitsuoky,  (1616-1691), 
the  greatest  flower  painter  Japan  has 
produced.  His  ideals  were  purity  of  line 
and  purity  of  colour.  His  flower  pieces 
were  models  of  elegance,  and  invariably 
endowed  with  some  tender  sentiment. 
The  austerity  of  medievalism  has  yielded 
to  the  sweetness  and  fancy  of  a  triumphal 
epoch,  losing  thereby  nothing  of  its  dig¬ 
nity,  but  gaining  something  of  gentleness 
and  tranquillity. 


94 


JAPANESE  ART 


The  Kano  school  was  in  its  prime. 
Tanyu  was  famous  all  over  Japan.  His 
brother,  Naonobu  (1607-1651),  laboured 
for  years  to  combine  energy  with  delicacy 
of  touch,  and  at  last  succeeded.  He  is 
one  of  the  most  individual  of  all  the 
artists  of  his  race.  His  picture  of  a 
monkey  groping  for  the  sun  is  one  of 
the  best  known  pictures  of  Japanese  art. 
Yeishi,  the  youngest  man  of  the  illustri¬ 
ous  Takanobu  family,  painted  women  with 
a  greater  refinement  and  a  more  thorough 
understanding  of  drapery  than  they  had 
ever  been  painted  before. 

What  a  flapping  parody  in  comparison 
is  the  grace  of  a  Japanese  lady  in  the 
canvas  of  one  of  our  latter  day  artists, 
christened  “  La  Princesse  du  Pays  de  la 
Porcelaine !  ” 

A  renown  equal  to  that  of  these  three 
men  was  enjoyed  by  Shioukada,  also  called 
Shojo,  who  died  in  1639.  He  favoured 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


95 


large  compositions  and  pale,  flat  tints. 
His  washes  were  remarkably  pure  and 
expressive.  They  sometimes  cover  a  sur¬ 
face  of  several  square  feet,  and  yet  are 
perfectly  even,  melting  almost  unnotice- 
ably  into  the  background.  His  works 
have  been  published  in  two  volumes  in 
Yedo,  1804. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  artists  had 
created  a  new  style,  while  thinking  they 
were  imitating  classic  models,  but  it  was 
not  before  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth 
when  the  real  renaissance  set  in  and  the 
classical  ideal  was  followed  by  a  realistic 
tendency. 

The  sixteen  years  of  the  Genroku  pe¬ 
riod  (1688-1703)  which  have  been  com¬ 
pared  to  the  age  of  Pericles,  the  days  of 
Louis  XV.,  and  the  Venetian  prime,  were 
the  heyday  of  Japanese  art  and  culture. 
Art  and  culture  seemed  to  have  every¬ 
thing  their  own  way.  There  were  masters 


96 


JAPANESE  ART 


in  every  branch  of  art.  Bashio  wrote  his 
poetry;  Chikamitsu,  who  has  been  com¬ 
pared  to  Shakespeare,  had  his  plays  per¬ 
formed  in  Yedo.  Pottery  was  represented 
by  Ninsei  and  Kenzan,  architecture  by 
the  great  Zingaro,  sculpture  by  Ritsuo, 
and  the  metallurgic  art  by  Somin. 

The  great  genius  of  the  period  was 
Korin  ( 1 66 1 — 1 7 1 6).  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  break  away  from  the  classical 
ideals.  There  was  about  him  not  a  trace 
of  arbitrary  rules  or  traditions.  Whatever 
he  imagined  he  produced  immediately 
in  a  wild  improvisatore  fashion  without 
troubling  himself  how  it  was  done,  as  long 
as  it  produced  an  effect.  He  was  a  great 
colourist.  His  sketches  in  black  and  gold 
(gold  powder  being  sprinkled  over  certain 
parts  of  the  drawing),  a  style  introduced 
by  Sotatsu  fifty  years  before,  are  wonder¬ 
ful  feats  of  execution.  Although  best 
known  as  a  painter,  he  also  achieved  great 


Korin.  —  Character  -  Portrait 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


97 


triumphs  as  a  lacquerer.  He  has  to  be 
classed  in  the  list  of  those  eccentric 
geniuses  who,  by  the  very  excess  of  their 
individuality,  fail  to  put  their  real  talent 
at  its  full  value. 

Of  an  equally  radical  but  more  practi¬ 
cal  mind  was  Okyo  (1732-1795),  the 
painter  of  morning  mists,  of  cranes,  fish, 
little  dogs,  stags  and  apes.  He  estab¬ 
lished  the  so-called  “  natural  ”  in  Shijo 
school  about  1750.  He  was  a  great  stick¬ 
ler  for  truth,  resolved  to  paint  directly 
from  nature,  without  trying  to  embellish 
his  work.  But  he  could  not  escape  his 
genius ;  he  was  a  poet  by  nature,  and  his 
interpretations  became  poetical  even 
against  his  will.  His  compositions  pos¬ 
sess  a  charming  delicacy,  a  gracious  ease, 
a  naturalness  of  attitude ;  but  they  are 
conceived  in  a  superficial  manner ;  neither 
he  nor  his  school  were  ever  able  to 
represent  the  inner  life,  or  the  pro- 


98 


JAPANESE  ART 


found  character  of  the  subjects  they 
attempted. 

The  strength  and  violent  passions,  which 
had  stamped  the  earlier  art,  were  in  it 
lacking.  Okyo  and  his  pupils  shunned 
the  sterner  moods  of  nature,  as  well  as 
the  deep  and  tragic  elements  of  human 
life.  But  what  of  pure  soul  there  should 
be  in  infinite  delicacy  breathed  through 
their  work.  They  drew  again  attention 
to  the  infinite  fertility  of  landscape  mo¬ 
tives  that  hide  among  the  pine-topped 
islands;  they  proved  that  in  the  facile 
Japanese  brush  lay  still  unsuspected  ten¬ 
dernesses. 

The  Daijo  temple  of  Kameizan  was  en¬ 
tirely  decorated  by  him  and  his  pupils. 
Every  room  carries  out  a  certain  idea. 
The  “  room  of  mountain  and  water  ”  is 
devoted  to  streams  and  mountains.  The 
wall  is  of  gold  ground  and  rusty  russet. 
The  breath  of  nature  seems  to  come  ring- 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


99 


ing  through  the  pine-needles,  and  the 
purity  of  the  sparkling  waters  seems  to 
wash  all  vulgar  elements  out  of  the  human 
soul.  In  the  “  room  of  agriculture,”  he 
painted  upon  sixteen  panels  the  history  of 
rice  —  from  the  sowing  and  planting  in 
the  field  to  the  harvest  and  the  gathering. 
In  the  “peacock  room,”  he  lavished  all  his 
skill  on  a  pair  of  peacocks  under  two  pine- 
trees.  A  native  critic  said  of  this  decora¬ 
tion:  “  No  king,  1  do  not  care  how  great 
and  rich  in  power  he  be,  could  cram  under 
a  crown  one-tenth  of  the  imperial  airs  and 
splendour  which  Okyo  painted  into  the 
majestic  carriage  of  these  two  peacocks.” 
The  “  room  of  ambassadors  ”  is  the  joint 
work  of  the  two  favourite  pupils  of  Okyo, 
Yamanato  Shurei  and  Kamaoka  Kirei. 
On  one  side  a  warrior’s  messenger  ap¬ 
proaches  the  king’s  castle,  on  the  other 
the  queen  is  granting  an  audience  to  the 
ladies  of  the  embassy. 


IOO 


JAPANESE  ART 


How  seriously  Okyo,  after  all,  took 
his  art,  is  shown  by  the  following  story, 
known  to  every  educated  person  in  Japan, 
and  with  which  I  conclude  this  chapter, 
as  it  is  typical  of  the  patience  and  per¬ 
severance  which  Japanese  artists,  par¬ 
ticularly  of  this  period,  have  always  demon¬ 
strated  in  the  pursuit  of  their  vocation: 

The  favourite  resort  of  the  wild  boars 
was  also  the  favourite  haunt  of  Okyo. 
The  cave  in  the  rock,  which  the  stream 
had  dug  with  its  crystal  chisel,  found 
itself,  on  a  fine  summer  day,  converted 
into  a  nature-made  studio  for  the  master. 

Day  after  day,  he  sat  in  his  cave-studio, 
always  looking  out  at  the  tremulous  pat¬ 
terns  which  the  sun,  sieving  through  the 
pine-needles,  wove  upon  the  ground  and 
on  a  boar,  all  covered  with  mud,  taking 
his  siesta  in  a  royal  fashion.  For  hours 
and  hours  he  watched  the  sleeping  boar, 
and,  finally,  on  a  fine  summer  twilight 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


IOI 


hour,  he  gathered  his  courage  and  took 
up  his  brush.  I  do  not  know  how  many 
sketches,  how  many  studies,  he  made  of 
the  boar;  I  do  not  know  how  many  hours 
—  at  the  close  of  day  when  the  mountain 
silence  was  full  of  the  whisperings  of  pine- 
needles  —  he  had  spent  in  his  cave-studio. 
One  night,  the  hunters  of  Hozu  village 
were  very  much  surprised  to  welcome  a 
strange  guest  around  their  evening  fire. 
The  strange  guest  spoke  to  them  of  the 
life  of  the  mountain,  of  his  love  for  the 
folks  of  the  woods:  he  told  them  how 
much  he  had  envied  their  open-air  occu¬ 
pation.  At  last,  he  took  out  from  the 
breast  folds  of  his  kimono  a  roll  of  paper. 
When  he  unrolled  it,  the  hunters  saw  a 
picture  of  the  wild  boar. 

“  What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  Is  it  the 
picture  of  a  dead  boar  ?  Do  you  think  it 
is  dead  ?  ”  the  visitor  said. 

Without  a  word,  the  hunters  looked 


102 


JAPANESE  ART 


upon  it.  They  seemed  a  little  puzzled  at 
first,  and  then  a  bolder  one  among  them 
gave  voice  to  the  common  sentiment: 

“  Why,  yes,  I  guess  it  is  dead.’' 

And  the  visitor  went  away.  Almost 
every  day,  the  hunters  saw  the  same 
stranger  around  their  evening  fire.  And 
every  night  the  pine  flames  and  the  eyes 
of  the  hunters  kindled  upon  a  clever 
picture  of  a  dead  boar.  The  visitor  asked 
them  the  same  question  every  time,  and 
the  hunters  gave  him  answers  that  were 
different  neither  in  words  nor  intent. 
And  sadly  always,  the  visitor  went  his 
lonely  way  into  the  shades  of  night.  But 
one  night  he  came;  brought  with  him,  as 
usual,  the  picture  of  a  boar.  He  asked 
the  same  old  question  of  the  hunters.  But 
the  hunters  did  not  give  him  the  wonted 
answer. 

“  Why,  no  !  ”  they  said,  “  this  boar  is 
alive ;  it’s  asleep,  that  is  all.” 


THE  RENAISSANCE 


103 


And  light  came  into  the  eyes  of  the 
visitor,  and -he  made  his  way  all  through 
the  village  of  Hozu.  In  every  cottage  the 
answer  which  was  given  to  him  was  the 
same.  And  in  the  man  who  went  away 
from  Hozu  village,  in  the  fading  hours  of 
that  night,  one  could  see  the  very  picture 
of  triumph,  of  an  exceeding  great  joy. 

And  that  is  the  story  they  tell.  Now 
Okyo  knew  very  well  that  those  hunters 
of  Hozu  village,  without  the  thinnest 
taint  of  academic  culture  or  of  schooling, 
could  tell  at  a  single  glance,  and  that,  too, 
at  the  distance  of  many  a  yard,  whether  a 
boar  is  dead  or  alive.  And  when  the  con¬ 
sensus  of  opinion  told  him  that  his  picture 
was  the  picture  of  a  sleeping  boar,  he  was 
quite  sure  that  he  had  achieved,  for  the 
first  time,  the  feat  of  painting  the  fine  and 
very  delicate  distinction  between  death 
and  sleeping  life. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 
The  Ukio-ye  School  (1700-1867) 

OWARD  the  middle  of  the  sev¬ 
enteenth  century  the  first  faint 
traces  of  an  influence  of  West¬ 
ern  pictorial  art  became  palpable.  The 
artist  Iwasa  Matahei  was  probably  one 
of  the  first  who  got  interested  in  occi¬ 
dental  laws  of  composition,  his  knowl¬ 
edge  being  gathered  largely  from  stray 
copper  engravings  which  the  Portuguese 
and  Dutch  traders  had  brought  with  them 
to  Japan.  Also  Okyo  made  various  at¬ 
tempts  in  imitating  the  Dutch;  he  even 
copied  several  engravings  for  a  rich  ama¬ 
teur  of  Nagasaki. 


IO4 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  105 

Although  these  experiments  had  at  the 
start  no  decided  effect  on  the  Japanese 
style,  they  helped  to  free  it  more  and 
more  from  the  shackles  of  Chinese  tra¬ 
dition.  The  artists  were  initiated  into 
the  laws  of  perspective  and  foreshorten¬ 
ing,  first  put  in  practice  by  Kokan  of 
Nagasaki  (1747-1818),  and  became  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  study  from  nature  and 
life  as  practised  by  Western  artists.  Shi- 
bukohan,  Oado,  and  the  lacquerer  Kenzan 
became  the  most  ardent  champions  of  this 
innovation. 

Iwasa  Matahei,  who  became  famous 
about  1640,  only  changed  his  range  of 
subjects.  He  was  the  first  Japanese 
painter  who  ever  tried  to  represent  sub¬ 
jects  which  predecessors  deemed  un¬ 
worthy  of  art:  the  scenes  of  every-day 
life.  One  of  the  common  people,  without 
rank  and  without  pride  of  blood,  he  threw 
himself  whole-heartedly  into  the  study  of 


io6 


JAPANESE  ART 


the  many  entertaining  phases  of  the  life 
of  common  people.  The  idyl  of  a  rustic 
love,  the  sports  of  children,  the  dance,  the 
songs,  the  festivals  of  simple  village  folks, 
the  display  of  crowded  market-places,  and 
also  the  somewhat  shadier  sides  of  life, 
real  and  full  of  soft  tints  —  these  appealed 
to  him,  overwhelmed  his  enthusiasm,  and 
captured  his  dreams. 

His  brush  covered  large  and  various 
fields,  and  his  ink  dishes  compassed  great 
possibilities  of  colours.  He  caught  the 
samurai  and  the  market-men  at  their 
merrymaking  under  the  cherry-trees  in 
spring,  and  it  is  hard  to  tell  in  words  how 
much  of  grace  and  unstudied  elegance  he 
put  into  the  poses  and  movements  of 
dancing-girls,  and  of  that  entertaining 
class  of  women  whom  we  call  the  geisha 
to-day.  He  took  rich  red,  green,  yellow, 
and  black,  and  made  them  dwell  in 
perfect  harmony  on  his  silk,  although 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


107 


his  colouring  is  not  of  the  simplest, 
striving  more  for  richness  than  the  ele¬ 
gance  of  monochrome. 

Toil  was  the  only  reward  for  his  work. 
Without  vanity,  ever  refusing  to  take  him¬ 
self  seriously,  like  our  American  painter, 
Gustav  Verbeck,  always  fond  of  making 
fun  of  any  ambitious  dreams  that  might 
have  sprouted  in  his  head,  he  wished 
that  he,  and  he  alone,  might  be  satis¬ 
fied.  To-day  kept  on  becoming  to-mor¬ 
row,  and  always  he  went  on  without 
taking  thoughts  as  to  his  food  or  rai¬ 
ment.  He  was  always  satisfied  as  long 
as  his  stomach  did  not  cry  to  him  too 
loudly.  The  reason  why  it  is  so  very 
difficult  to  find  a  kakemono  with  his 
signature  upon  it,  is  because  he  could 
so  rarely  persuade  himself  that  it  is  worth 
any  man’s  while  —  his  least  of  all  —  to 
sign  his  name  to  the  work  that  came 
from  his  brush.  This  lack  of  signature 


io8 


JAPANESE  ART 


has  been  an  eternal  regret  to  the  critics 
of  latter  days.  But  this  absence  of  sig¬ 
nature  has  really  made  his  work  better 
recognizable  than  that  of  many  other 
artists,  and  at  the  same  time  has  told  over 
and  over  again  a  very  eloquent  story  of 
the  high  ideals  held  by  Matahei,  which  he 
had  ever  striven  to  attain,  which  had 
made  him  always  dissatisfied  and  un¬ 
happy,  and  which  also  made  him  a  better 
artist  as  the  days  grew. 

Matahei  exerted  a  considerable  influ¬ 
ence  upon  succeeding  generations,  and 
his  principles,  carried  out  by  two  men  of 
genius,  Moronobu  (1638-1714)  and  Hana- 
busa  Itcho,  who  both  became  famous  by 
their  genre  paintings,  gave  rise  to  the 
Ukio-ye  or  “common”  school.  This, 
however,  was  not  fully  established  until 
fifty  to  sixty  years  later,  about  1700,  by 
the  contemporaries  of  Okyo,  the  great 
artist  who,  although  not  fully  in  sym- 


Moronobu.  —  Morning  Toilet. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


109 


pathy  with  the  Ukio-ye  painters,  dealt 
the  death-blow  to  the  Kano  school  by  his 
innovations. 

About  1680,  wood-engraving  came  into 
vogue.  It  greatly  helped  to  popularize 
art.  The  artists,  unable  to  satisfy  the 
demand  for  kakemonos,  welcomed  the 
process  of  reproduction  with  enthusiasm, 
and  many  of  them  turned  illustrators. 
Many  phases  of  life  they  never  had 
dared  to  represent  on  a  kakemono  could 
be  expressed  with  impunity  in  the  new 
medium,  as  the  oribons  (i.  e.  picture- 
books)  and  serial  prints  only  appealed  to 
the  middle  classes.  The  nobility  had  no 
use  for  them ;  they  were  “  vulgar  crea¬ 
tions,”  unfit  to  be  handled  by  a  lady  of 
rank.  They  never  bought  them,  and 
even  to-day  do  not  rank  them  highly. 

Moronobu,  who  made  a  specialty  of 
illustrating  the  historical  events  that  had 
happened  in  different  provinces  and 


I  IO 


JAPANESE  ART 


towns,  worked  almost  exclusively  for  the 
engravers.  He  was  the  first,  also,  who 
represented  actors  in  art  Itcho,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  no  device  to  multiply  his 
productions.  He  was  a  painter  pure  and 
simple.  He  is  remarkable  not  only  for 
the  spirit  and  gaiety  which  is  character¬ 
istic  of  a  great  many  of  his  paintings, 
but  also  for  his  method,  in  which  one 
must  admire  the  expressive  use  of  the 
brush. 

The  history  of  wood-engraving  is,  to  a 
large  extent,  the  history  of  the  Ukio-ye 
school  itself,  and  our  Western  knowledge 
of  Japanese  art  would  be  very  deficient 
if  we  had  to  depend  solely  on  “  wall 
pictures.” 

In  the  beginning  only  black  and  white 
single  sheets  were  produced.  Moronobu 
and  Husuyuma  Moro  were  the  leading 
exponents  of  the  Durer-like  woodcuts. 

After  awhile,  they  began  to  colour  the 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


III 


prints  with  reddish  orange,  and  called 
them  the  “tan”  prints.  Torii  Kiyonobu 
(1664-1729)  and  Kiyamasa  made  draw¬ 
ings  for  this  kind  of  prints.  A  little  later 
they  mixed  a  kind  of  glue,  called  nikawa , 
with  the  Chinese  ink,  to  give  the  effect  of 
varnish.  They  also  used  gold  paint,  and 
called  them  “  lacquer  prints.”  Okumura 
Massanobu  (1690-1768),  whose  short 
curves  almost  possessed  the  purity  of 
Greek  line,  Nishimura  Shigenaga  (1697- 
1756),  and  others,  had  some  of  their  best 
efforts  reproduced  in  that  way.  In  the 
Kyoto  school,  about  1 740,  they  tried  poly¬ 
chrome  prints  for  the  first  time,  and  the 

i 

prints  thus  reproduced  in  light  green  were 
called  “  rose  prints.” 

This  curious  combination  of  two  fragile 
tints  with  black  outlines  was  explored  to 
the  best  advantage  by  Kiyonobu,  Ichi- 
gawa  Toyonobou  (1711-1783),  and  Torii 
Koyomitsu  (1735-1785).  This  work  be- 


I  I  2 


JAPANESE  ART 


longs  to  the  best  Japanese  colour-printing 
has  produced. 

About  1765,  an  engraver  by  the  name 
of  Kinroku  for  the  first  time  produced 
prints  which  passed  through  four  or  five 
impressions,  and  Suzuki  Haronobu  (1718- 
1770)  and  Buntcho  have  been  interested 
in  this  type  of  prints.  Colour  has  probably 
never  been  used  in  a  more  refined  and 
more  r affine  manner  than  by  these  artists. 
The  tints  they  applied  were  merely  hints 
at  colour.  They  were  of  a  paleness  which 
set  one  to  dreaming  without  paying  atten¬ 
tion  to  what  the  picture  represented.  And 
because  these  prints  were  exceedingly  fair 
to  the  eye,  and  attractive,  the  people  of 
the  time  called  them  nishikie ,  which 
means  “brocade  pictures.”  Although  at  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Nishikawa, 
Soukenobu  and  other  artists  of  Kyoto 
were  trying  to  cope  with  the  painters 
of  the  Yedo  brocade  pictures,  they  did  not 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  I  I  $ 

succeed  in  outshining  them,  and  from  that 
time  on,  the  brocade  prints  of  Yedo  be¬ 
came  one  of  the  famous  products  of 
the  city. 

The  prints  of  Koriusa,  Shighemassa 
and  Shunsho  mark  a  transition  period. 
They  strove  for  more  colour,  but  still 
hesitated  to  use  it  in  its  full  strength.  It 
was  left  to  Torii  Kiyonaga  (1752-1815) 
to  accomplish  this.  He  returned  to  the 
ideals  of  the  Tosa  school. 

The  colours  he  relied  upon  were  the 
following :  Clear  yellow,  dark  chestnut, 
red-brown,  clear  orange,  mastic  white, 
silver  white,  vermilion,  brilliant  violet, 
black,  and  brown  lacquer.  To  heighten 
the  brilliancy  of  their  effect,  he  introduced 
the  device  of  passing  a  rice  paste  upon  the 
wood  block  each  time  before  spreading 
the  colour. 

Other  artists  besides  the  painter  have 
contributed  to  bring  about  the  perfection 


JAPANESE  ART 


H4 

of  these  colour  prints  —  artists  whose 
names,  except  in  the  rarest  instances, 
have  perished  with  them  even  in  Japan. 
Work  equal  to  theirs  is  common  enough 
there,  but  is  rare  enough  here  to  merit 
something  more  than  a  passing  notice. 

First,  there  is  the  artist  engraver.  What 
finished  pieces  of  workmanship  are  the 
blocks  he  cuts !  How  the  lines  sweep 
from  his  knife  with  the  same  unerring 
grace  with  which  they  sprang  into  life 
from  the  brush !  Never  a  quiver,  or  shake, 
or  tremble,  to  rob  them  of  a  particle  of 
their  dexterous  force.  Look  at  the  faces 
of  any  of  the  women  and  see  how  steady 
are  the  lines  of  the  contour,  and  how 
wonderfully  fine  and  clear  those  of  the 
hair  as  it  leaves  the  forehead. 

And  then  there  is  the  artist  printer, 
who  spreads  the  ink  upon  the  blocks  so 
carefully  that  every  line  comes  clearly 
from  the  hand-pressing,  not  one  of  them 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  I  1 5 

smudged  or  blurred.  Really,  I  am  not 
sure  whether  the  place  of  honour  should 
not  be  given  to  the  printer.  He  might 
have  marred  the  work  of  the  engraver, 
and  spoilt  the  effect  the  painter  sought 
for,  his  methods  of  printing  being  the 
crudest  and  most  unpatentable;  yet,  in¬ 
stead  of  marring,  he  has  added  beauties, 
and  left  the  mark  of  his  own  individuality 
upon  the  print.  His  methods  were  per¬ 
fect,  and  perfectly  simple.  In  their 
chromo-xylographs,  the  faults  of  register 
are  very  few  and  far  between  —  even  the 
magnifying  glass  fails  to  reveal  any  places 
where  one  colour-block  has  in  printing 
been  allowed  to  envelop  another  —  the 
reason  being  that  this  method  of  printing 
did  not  permit  any  faults  of  register. 

To  know  whether  an  old  print  is 
authentic  or  not,  one  has  simply  to  study 
the  register ;  if  it  deviates  only  a  hair¬ 
breadth  from  the  space  allotted  to  it,  its 


JAPANESE  ART 


1 16 

authenticity  becomes  doubtful.  I  would 
advise  print  collectors  to  purchase  only 
prints  with  an  absolutely  perfect  register. 
No  price  is  too  high,  as  such  prints  will 
steadily  increase  in  value ;  while  the 
others  are  really,  artistically  as  commer¬ 
cially,  unprofitable  possessions. 

In  contrast  to  the  Western  principle  of 
pressing  the  block  on  the  paper,  and  thus 
obtaining  the  impression,  the  Japanese, 
dispensing  with  the  mechanical  means  of 
a  press,  lays  the  paper  on  the  block,  and 
pats  the  paper  with  simple  tampons  or 
“  barens.”  He  can  regulate  and  modify 
the  pressure  at  end  where  he  wishes,  and 
thus  obtain  the  gradated  tints  and  half¬ 
tones  that  are  so  important  an  element  of 
the  charm  of  Japanese  colour  prints. 
When  the  colour  in  the  picture  is  shaded, 
he  also  shades  the  tone  in  the  block  for 
every  printing,  and  reproduces  it  in  one 
pressure.  In  prints  of  the  highest  class 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  1 1  7 

two  or  three  colours  will  often  be  found 
shaded  in  this  way.  Herein  lay  the 
chance  for  the  printer  to  use  his  mind  as 
well  as  his  hand,  and  to  prove  himself  also 
an  artist,  and  not  only  a  workman. 

The  value  of  these  colour  prints,  on 
which  so  much  art  was  lavished,  was 
entirely  underestimated.  They  sold  so 
cheaply,  that  the  purchasers  handled  them 
rather  roughly ;  they  were  absolutely  care¬ 
less  about  their  preservation,  to  such  an 
extent  that  prints  of  masters  who  flour¬ 
ished  from  1720-1750  are  now  unpro¬ 
curable,  even  in  a  tattered  condition. 
Sometimes  the  single  sheet  prints  were 
preserved  in  books,  whence  they  occa¬ 
sionally  emerge  with  their  colours  almost 
in  primitive  purity.  But  they  were  more 
often  posted  on  screens,  especially  on 
small  screens  which  sheltered  the  hibachi 
(charcoal  stove)  from  the  too  frequent 
drafts  of  a  Japanese  house.  Rain,  wind, 


I iS  JAPANESE  ART 

dust,  smoke  of  tobacco  and  of  charcoal, 
each  took  a  share  in  their  destruction. 
They  perished  soon,  and  were  soon  re¬ 
placed.  The  stock  was  plentiful,  was, 
indeed,  being  augmented  daily,  and  the 
price  was  ridiculously  small. 

In  a  land  so  brimful  of  art  as  Japan,  it 
was  not  surprising,  perhaps,  that  such 
conceptions  did  not  hold  a  very  high 
place.  But  to  the  rest  of  the  world, 
which  has  not,  or  never  had,  any  popular 
art  to  speak  of,  it  is  only  natural  that 
they  quickly  appealed  to  us  as  not  the  least 
among  the  many  art  marvels  which  Japan 
had  in  store. 

The  pages  which  have  been  allotted  to 
me  are  not  numerous  enough  to  permit 
an  excursus  on  all  the  masters  and  pupils 
of  the  great  Ukiyo-ye  school.  Compara¬ 
tively  few  can  be  mentioned. 

The  reader  may  have  been  astonished  at 
the  similarity  of  names  of  certain  artists. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  119 

This  is,  however,  easily  explained.  It  is 
customary  for  pupils  to  introduce  a  char¬ 
acter  of  their  master’s  name  into  their 
own.  This  greatly  simplifies  the  study  of 
Japanese  painting,  as,  for  instance,  all 
those  who  were  privileged  to  take  into 
their  names  the  kuni  of  Toyokuni,  the 
vigorous  depicter  of  stage  life,  —  Kuni- 
mara,  Kunisada,  Kunimasa,  —  have  men¬ 
tally  as  well  as  technically  something  in 
common  with  Toyokuni,  who  himself  took 
loyo,  like  Toyohami,  the  painter  of  night 
festivals,  and  Toyoshiri,  the  depicter  of 
animated  crowds,  from  his  master,  Toyo- 
haru.  One  is  in  that  way  able  to  trace 
relationship  between  the  different  artists. 

The  class  of  artists  who  have  the  char¬ 
acter  Yei  —  Yeishi,  Yeiri,  Yeizan,  and 
Yeisen-— was  devoted  almost  exclusively 
to  the  charms  and  graces  of  Japanese 
womanhood.  The  linear  beauties  of  these 
representations  impress  one  like  a  nautch, 


I  20 


JAPANESE  ART 


like  some  languid  Oriental  dance,  in  which 
the  bodies  undulate  with  an  almost  imper¬ 
ceptible  vibration.  Everything  is  aerial 
here  ;  it  is  a  world  of  visions,  of  fragile, 
fairy  creatures,  separated  from  the  rest  of 
the  world  by  mysterious  garments,  which 
enwrap  them  and  seem  to  float  around 
them  like  a  dream.  Amber  faces,  very 
pure  outlines,  the  eyelids  and  eyelashes 
singularly  long,  dark  eyes,  surcharged 
with  languor  and  vague  passion,  and  at 
the  same  time  serious,  and  with  the  dig¬ 
nity  of  well-bred  women.  They  pass  their 
days,  idly  reclining,  wrapped  in  their 
silken  draperies,  in  which  you  can  see 
the  pine,  the  bamboo,  the  crane,  and  the 
turtle  worked  in  gold  and  silk,  amusing 
themselves  with  their  flowers,  their  gold¬ 
fish,  and  their  miniature  gardens.  Or  one 
of  them  takes  her  samisen  and  fills  the 
empty,  screen-encompassed  space  with 
some  sad  and  confused  melody.  We  see 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


I  2  I 


them  arranging  their  hair  in  one  of  the 
fourteen  classic  styles  known  to  the  Yedo 
belle,  darkening  their  lips,  or  arching  their 
eyebrows  with  tiny  sticks  of  grease  paint 
before  curiously  shaped  mirrors,  reflecting 
the  nonchalant  expressions  of  their  faces. 
And  their  garments,  stiff  and  cumbersome, 
flash  in  sun  and  moon-coloured  hues. 

The  Japanese  artists  see  in  woman  a 
glorification  of  all  beautiful  things.  They 
even  have  studied  the  natural  grace  of 
willow,  plum,  and  cherry  trees  to  find  the 
correct  expression  of  her  movements  and 
poses. 

The  Shijo  school  was  strongly  in  evi¬ 
dence  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  There  were  Yosen  (1752-1818), 
Goshen,  the  landscapist,  and  Sosen  (1747- 
1821).  The  latter  became  known  for  his 
pictures  of  monkeys.  He  devoted  his 
whole  life  to  the  study  of  animals,  and 
his  pictures  are  high  priced  in  England 


122 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  America.  Goshen  was  one  of  the 
great  colourists  of  the  new  school,  and 
had  many  pupils,  among  them  Hakkei, 
the  painter  of  insects  and  butterflies, 
Lenzan,  the  depicter  of  birds,  and  Sho- 
hizan,  whose  twigs  of  cherry  blossom 
were  sufficient  to  make  him  immortal. 
Besides  these  were  Seisen,  Gakurei, 
Zaitu  and  Kaikatei,  Ivioko,  Kuokudo, 
and  Tetsusan. 

Perhaps  the  most  talented  of  Okyo’s 
followers  was  Nishiyama  Hoyen,  who 
died  in  1S67,  at  the  age  of  sixty -four. 
Religious  painting,  which  had  ceased  to 
be  great  since  the  sixteenth  century, 
received  in  his  grace  and  tender  spirit¬ 
uality  its  final  efflorescence.  His  painting 
of  the  sea-goddess,  Kwannon,  which  all 
great  artists,  Chinese  and  Japanese,  have 
represented,  is  not  as  grand  and  over¬ 
powering  as  Monotobu’s.  But  it  is  a 
thoroughly  sweet  and  womanly  Kwannon, 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


123 


an  expression  of  the  more  gentle  and 
feminine  moods  in  Buddhism,  correspond¬ 
ing  to  the  worship  of  the  Holy  Virgin  in 
Catholic  countries.  “  Clothed  in  a  single 
robe  of  spotless  white,  enveloping  her 
like  a  thought,  dominating  her  head  like  a 
crystal  crown,  she  sits  among  the  jagged 
rocks  of  a  shore,  the  great  overshadowing 
spirit  of  pity,  love,  and  providence.”  In 
this  work  Hoyen  has  given  us  no  pictorial 
repetitions.  It  is  a  new  pictorial  creation, 
built  on  a  new  thought. 

But  Hoyen  did  not  only  deal  success¬ 
fully  with  the  human  figure  and  serious 
religious  work,  he  also  realized  in  his 
landscapes  the  highest  possibilities  of  his 
style.  The  debasement,  the  exaggeration, 
the  appeal  to  vulgar  feeling,  the  domi¬ 
nance  of  the  comic,  which  often  deface 
the  accomplishments  of  modern  Oriental 
art,  are  in  Hoyen  utterly  lacking.  Almost 
alone  among  his  contemporaries,  he  kept 


124 


JAPANESE  ART 


his  eyes  fixed  on  the  spiritual  heights  of 
the  Tosa  and  Kano  masters,  while  pre¬ 
serving  perfect  originality. 

The  painters  of  the  Ukio-ye  school  had 
rather  a  hard  time  in  the  meanwhile. 
They  were  dependent  on  publishers  and 
print-sellers,  and  many  of  them  led  a 
rather  precarious  existence.  They  ac¬ 
cepted  whatever  commission  fell  into  their 
hands  —  now  drawing  for  the  engravers 
sketches  that  appeared  in  albums,  now 
decorating  the  panels  of  a  temple  or 
mansion,  now  dashing  off  a  rough  colour 
sketch  at  the  rate  of  a  few  cents  a  sheet, 
now  wandering  off  into  the  country  with 
some  congenial  spirit  to  enjoy  life  entirely 
after  their  own  fashion,  and  to  take  what 
chance  might  throw  in  their  way. 

The  reformatory  work  that  had  been 
begun  by  Moronobu  and  Itcho  was  con¬ 
tinued  by  Miyagawa  Chosun.  He  did 
not  restrict  himself  to  the  narrow  limits 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


125 


of  the  later  Kano  pigments,  reds,  yellows, 
blues,  and  greens,  but  enriched  them  all 
with  a  new  scale  of  strange  browns, 
olives,  purples,  and  grays.  He  drew  his 
figures  very  much  like  Moronobu,  only 
less  harsh  in  outline,  while  his  back¬ 
grounds  were  treated  in  the  dashy  style 
of  Sesshin.  The  eighteenth  century  was 
an  age  of  splendid  patterns  in  garments, 
large  sweeping  areas  of  patterns,  as  distin¬ 
guished  from  the  finely  diapered  garments 
of  the  Genroku  period,  and  Chosun  was 
very  fond  of  drawing  them,  as  they  lend 
themselves  so  easily  to  colour  schemes. 
He  put  in  a  dash  of  colour  here  and  there 
where  one  least  expected  it,  a  trick  he 
had  learned  of  Korin  and  Kenzan.  His 
favourite  subjects  were  street  scenes  of 
Yedo.  His  best  known  works  are  “Hun¬ 
dred  Poets,”  “  Fans,”  and  “  Mirror  of 
Beauty,”  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  pic¬ 
ture-books  ever  produced. 


126 


JAPANESE  ART 


Other  painters  who  greatly  helped  the 
popular  movement  were  Teisan,  the  two 
brothers,  Torii  Kiyonobu  and  Torii  Kiyo- 
mitsu,  Buntcho,  Toyokusi,  Haronobu,  and 
Soukenobu. 

Kiyonobu  (1664-1729)  became  famous 
for  his  arrangement  in  rose  and  green. 
He  exhausted  these  two  colours  com¬ 
pletely.  No  European  artist  to  my  knowl¬ 
edge  has  ever  balanced  these  two  colours 
so  perfectly.  Buntcho  (1765-1801),  re¬ 
tained  all  his  life  by  a  prince,  indulged 
in  historical  researches,  and  the  depiction 
of  actors,  very  original  both  in  design  and 
colour  feeling.  Ever  since  Chikamitsu’s 
dramas  had  become  popular,  there  had 
been  a  rage  for  actor  prints.  Nearly  all 
artists  devoted  some  sheets  to  this  hith¬ 
erto  so  degraded  profession.  Toyokuni, 
and  later  Kuniyoshy  (1796-1861),  seemed 
particularly  adapted  to  this  work.  The 
violence  of  dramatic  gesture,  although 


Kuniyoshv.  —  A  Ronin. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


127 


exaggerated  almost  to  the  verge  of  the 
ridiculous,  are  masterly  rendered  by  them. 

Kuniyoshy,  in  particular,  was  a  wild, 
unrestrained  talent,  with  an  imagination 
that  was  neither  to  bend  nor  to  break. 
His  fantastic  landscapes  were  a  positive 
rejection  of  all  the  theories  and  estab¬ 
lished  rules  of  aestheticism.  His  illustra¬ 
tions  of  the  “  Forty-seven  Ronins,”  the 
national  drama  of  loyalty  and  revenge, 
made  him  popular  all  over  the  islands. 
Two  pupils  of  Buntcho,  Totsugen  and 
Bumpo,  became  very  popular  through  their 
numerous  albums  of  caricatures. 

Soukenobu  created  a  peculiar  type  of 
woman,  plump  young  girls  with  round 
and  laughing  faces.  They  were  unlike 
those  of  any  other  Japanese  artist.  Seated 
or  standing  under  flower  branches,  at  the 
bases  of  graceful  trees,  walking  in  the 
fields  or  flowery  garden  bowers,  they 
always  have  a  grace  of  their  own.  He  is 


128 


JAPANESE  ART 


the  poet  of  the  Japanese  young  girl,  deco¬ 
rated  with  fans,  in  a  long  robe  which 
winds  from  her  feet  in  undulating  folds, 
in  the  landscape  of  a  dream,  peopled  with 
fairy  birds  caroling  to  the  gods. 

Suzuki  Haronobu  (1765)  was  more  of  a 
revolutionary  spirit.  He  endeavoured  to 
remove  the  stigma  of  vulgarity  which  still 
clung  to  his  school.  “  Though  I  work  in 
prints,”  he  proudly  exclaimed,  “  I  shall 
style  myself  hereafter  ‘  master  painter  of 
the  national  school  of  Japan.’” 

He  possessed  a  governing  spirit,  ideas 
of  his  own,  and  irreverence  for  the  con¬ 
ventions,  thanks  to  which  he  was  destined 
to  become  the  admirable  painter  he  was. 
He  was  the  loving  delineator  of  the 
domestic  life  of  the  middle  classes.  He 
had  very  curious  ideas  of  form,  but  his 
line  had  a  beautiful  flow  and  swing  to  it. 
He  saw  everything  in  colour,  and  was 
able  to  invest  a  morsel  of  nature  with  its 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


129 


natural  harmony  of  light.  It  was  really 
he  who  introduced  atmosphere  into  Japan¬ 
ese  painting.  By  the  power  of  mental 
isolation,  of  concentration  in  himself,  of 
absorption  of  his  faculties  in  nature  only, 
and  by  the  positive  rejection  of  all  theories 
and  established  rules  of  aestheticism,  of 
all  that  had  not  for  its  motive  the  liv¬ 
ing  present,  his  eye  refined  itself  to  all  the 
swift  reflections,  the  subtle  quiverings,  the 
fleeting  effects  of  light  in  nature.  His 
hand  grew,  at  the  same  time,  more  supple 
and  strong  in  its  grasp  of  the  unforeseen 
and  unexpected  aerial  effects  which  re¬ 
vealed  themselves  to  him ;  while  his  pal¬ 
ette  became  clear,  joyous,  luminous,  fluent 
with  sunlight  and  permeated  by  the 
brightness  of  the  sky.  His  favourite  col¬ 
ours  were  green,  purple,  and  low-toned 
oranges. 

Independent  of  the  realistic  movement 
worked  Tchikuden  and  Hoitsu.  Tchi- 


130 


JAPANESE  ART 


kuden  became  known  in  Europe  by  a 
masterpiece  of  natural  simplicity,  an  eagle 
perched  on  a  rock,  overlooking  the  sea. 
Although  replete  with  personal  qualities, 
one  can  trace  in  him  the  influence  of  the 
Kano  school. 

Hoitsu  (1716-1828)  a  daimyo  by  birth, 
painted  for  pleasure.  He  studied  in  many 
studios,  but  found  that  the  ideals  of  the 
Tosa  school,  with  a  few  modifications, 
were  best  suited  to  flower  painting,  which 
was  his  specialty.  He  had  a  very  tal¬ 
ented  pupil  in  Kiitsou.  The  morning- 
glories,  full  of  dew,  with  a  suggestion  of 
the  waning  moon  behind,  are  deliciously 
rendered. 

In  their  delineations  of  flowers,  these 
two  painters  succeeded  in  reviving  all  the 
graces  of  their  delicate  organism,  the 
almost  inexpressible  tenderness  of  their 
fleeting  forms,  the  living  brightness  and 
glory  of  their  colours,  and  even  the 


Kiyonaga.  —  Picking  Iris. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  I  3 1 

unsubstantial  exhalations  of  their  per¬ 
fumes. 

Toward  1795,  when  Kiyonaga,  the  son 
of  Kiyomitsou  sprang  into  sudden  fame, 
the  Ukio-ye  school  had  become  a  school 
of  national  importance.  It  had  proven  its 
worth,  and  prejudice  concerning  it  had 
grown  less  strong. 

They  had  gone  forth  into  the  streets  of 
Yedo,  elated  with  love  for  their  native 
city,  and  quivering  with  inspiration.  They 
were  fascinated  by  the  inexhaustible  va¬ 
riety  of  her  sights  and  scenes,  and  they 
had  allowed  their  vagabond  fancy  to  ab¬ 
sorb  the  splendour  of  light  and  colour 
which  pervaded  all  these  scenes  of  popu¬ 
lar  life.  They  had  learned  to  look  at 
objects  in  a  more  rational  way ;  their 
knowledge  of  form  had  marvellously  im¬ 
proved  ;  they  did  not  longer  disregard 
shadows  entirely,  and,  if  their  perspective 
is  incorrect  from  our  point  of  view,  it  is 


i32 


JAPANESE  ART 


wilfully  so,  for  the  landscapes  on  some 
of  their  lacquer  trays  of  that  period  show 
that  even  inferior  artists  had  mastered  it. 

Kiyonaga  (1752-1818)  led  the  Ukio-ye 
to  greater  height  of  technical  perfection 
than  it  had  ever  reached  before.  He  was 
a  direct  forerunner  of  Hokusai,  one  of  the 
greatest  draughtsmen  in  a  time  when  good 
draughtsmen  were  the  rule.  His  brush¬ 
stroke  has  a  tremendous  vigour,  as  shown 
in  his  paintings.  He  revelled  in  air  and 
action.  Picnic  parties,  groups  at  the  tem¬ 
ples,  dances,  crowds  on  holidays  were  his 
special  forte.  Human  forms  leaped  as  if 
alive  from  his  restless  brush.  He  left 
behind  him  a  remarkable  series  of  works. 

One  volume  is  devoted  to  landscape, 
another  to  flowers,  a  third  to  fishes, 
and  several  others  contain,  in  very  ani¬ 
mated  outlines,  sketches  of  ordinary  life. 
He  was  very  careless  in  detail;  his  ink 
simply  rained  down  on  the  paper,  and 


t 


' 

■ 

Kunisada.  —  On  the  %ver 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


133 


gained  outlines  and  accents  entirely  by 
the  certainty  of  his  hand  and  eye.  He 
cared  only  for  the  general  appearance  of 
objects,  treating  everything  in  silhouette, 
and  with  sketchy  modelling. 

Many  other  artists  could  be  mentioned 
as  Kunisada,  Nagahura,  the  embodiment 
of  elegance,  Ganka,  Shigenaga,  Shosizan, 
Torei,  Morofusa,  Morinaga,  Motonaga, 
Tsunenobu,  the  painter  of  peacocks  and 
giant  chrysanthemums,  and  his  pupils 
Tchikonobu  and  Minenubo,  Taigado 
and  Bunlei,  two  belated  Kano  painters, 
and  many  others. 

But  one  must  refrain.  As  said  before, 
it  is  impossible  to  mention  them  all.  Each 
one  had  some  distinguishing  trait.  Their 
works,  painted  or  engraved,  charm  at  first 
sight  by  the  variety  of  subjects  and  atti¬ 
tudes  which  can  be  found  in  the  reproduc¬ 
tions  of  no  other  period. 

The  greatest  merit  of  the  Ukio-ye 


134 


JAPANESE  ART 


school,  however,  is  that  it  has  given  us 
three  great  artists,  in  which  almost  the 
whole  of  Japanese  pictorial  art  seems 
to  be  summed  up  for  the  Western 
world,  —  Outomaro  Kitagawa  (1753- 
1S05),  Hiroshige  (1797-1868),  and  Ho¬ 
kusai  (1760-1849). 

Outomaro  is  known  as  the  greatest 
painter  of  Japanese  women.  He  cared 
less  for  severity  and  purity  of  expression 
than  his  predecessors.  He  disdained  the 
round  and  stumpy  figures  of  Chinese 
origin  by  Soukenobu,  and  the  robust  and 
sculpturesque  women  of  Kiyonaga;  he 
sacrificed  everything  to  delicacy  of  treat¬ 
ment.  The  shades  of  expression  in  his 
women  are  so  delicate  and  transient,  the 
impression  of  their  charm  so  fleeting, 
their  features  and  their  type  so  hovering 
between  prettiness  and  ugliness,  that  even 
his  crones  seemed  as  if  they  might  once 
have  been  pretty  as  the  prettiest  maidens, 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


135 


whose  grace  the  slightest  touch  of  change 
would  mar. 

He  also  had  a  larger  conception  of  his 
subject.  He  did  not  merely  strive  for 
external  beauty.  He  represented  the 
Japanese  woman  in  all  the  various  phases 
of  her  domestic  life,  and  with  a  keenness 
of  observation  which  almost  borders  on 
psychological  insight.  He  represented 
her  in  her  babyhood,  carried  on  the  back 
of  her  mother,  as  child,  as  young  girl, 
playing  the  samisen,  or  studying  the 
“  Collection  of  One  Thousand  Leaves,” 
as  sweetheart  under  the  plum-tree,  as 
young  wife  going  through  the  tea  cere¬ 
mony,  as  mother,  as  adultress  or  adven¬ 
turess,  and  finally  in  her  old  age.  He 
penetrated  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  go 
into  the  feminine  mode  of  life. 

He  was  also  very  fond  of  depicting  the 
life  of  actresses,  of  geishas,  and  the  in¬ 
mates  of  the  green  houses  of  the  Yoshi- 


136 


JAPANESE  ART 


wara.  This  is  probably  the  reason  why 
so  many  critics  have  called  him  a  sen¬ 
sualist.  To  me  he  is  the  most  ethereal 
of  painters.  True  enough,  he  was  a  man 
of  easy  morals,  and  greatly  addicted  to 
pleasure,  who  spent  the  largest  part  of 
life  in  the  Yoshiwara,  and  finally  died 
of  constitutional  exhaustion  at  the  age  of 
fifty.  But  his  art  he  took  seriously.  He 
eliminated  everything  that  might  have 
appeared  fleshly  or  physical.  He  used 
geishas  and  courtesans  as  models  because 
they  seemed  more  graceful  to  him,  and 
because  he  could  study  them  at  leisure. 
In  his  pictures  women,  even  if  they 
represent  courtesans,  look  invariably  like 
princesses.  /Esthetically  dissatisfied  with 
the  small  size  of  his  countrywomen,  he 
drew  them  taller  and  slenderer,  and 
imbued  their  elongated  shapes  with  in¬ 
finite  tenderness  and  grace.  His  serial 
“  Silk-worms,”  in  which  he  depicted  the 


Outomako.  —  A  Yedo  Beauty. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  1 37 

“  Forty-seven  Ronins,”  as  represented  by 
the  most  beautiful  women,  is  the  master¬ 
piece  of  his  career.  The  workmanship  of 
these  pages  is  exquisite,  and  the  beauty 
and  delicacy  of  forms  and  flowing  lines 
has  never  been  excelled. 

Not  content  with  the  representation  of 
figures  and  scenes  in  single  engravings, 
the  artists  of  this  time  produced  compo¬ 
sitions  spreading  over  several  leaves. 
Outomaro  was  particularly  fond  of  trip- 
tychs.  As  a  colourist,  he  ranks  with  the 
best  of  the  Ukio-ye  school.  His  colour 
schemes  were  mostly  conceived  in  four 
tints,  a  deep  black,  a  tender  white,  a  pink 
of  the  colour  of  rose-leaves,  and  a  sombre, 
melancholy  violet. 

Outomaros  are  oftener  offered  for  sale 
than  any  other  colour  prints,  but  com¬ 
paratively  few  are  authentic.  He  was  a 
very  prolific  artist,  but,  as  he  enjoyed 
a  great  reputation  in  his  own  lifetime, 


138 


JAPANESE  ART 


he  became  somewhat  unscrupulous.  In 
order  to  increase  his  production  he  em¬ 
ployed  a  certain  number  of  pupils  to  work 
with  him,  whose  works  were  signed  with 
his  name.  Moreover,  after  his  death  his 
widow  married  one  of  his  pupils,  who 
signed  the  name  of  the  dead  man  to  his 
own  work,  and,  in  addition,  the  publishers 
themselves  appear  to  have  long  continued 
to  employ  others  of  his  pupils  who  always 
made  use  of  his  name.  The  number  of 
prints  signed  with  the  name  Outomaro  is 
enormous.  But  all  of  these  are  very  far 
from  possessing  the  charm,  the  elegance, 
and  the  high  qualities  of  those  which  are 
really  due  to  the  master. 

Hiroshige,  generally  regarded  as  the 
foremost  landscape  painter  of  Japan,  was 
born  at  Yedo  and  was  a  pupil  of  Toyo- 
hiro.  His  earliest  work  was  a  series  of 
views  of  Mount  Fusiyama,  dated  1820. 
His  masterpieces,  however,  including  the 


Hiroshige.  ■ —  Landscape 


SX 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


139 


“Go-jiu-sen  Eki  Tokaido”  (“Fifty-three 
Stations  of  the  Tokaido  ”),  were  published 
after  1845,  in  the  decline  of  his  life.  He 
died  of  cholera  during  the  great  epidemic 
of  1858. 

Hiroshige’s  favourite  subjects  were  the 
scenes  of  every  day  in  and  around  Yedo, 
and  along  the  picturesque  highway  con¬ 
necting  Yedo  with  Kyoto.  He  had  settled 
down  with  the  determination  to  conquer 
the  beauties  of  nature  within  the  vicinity 
of  his  native  town.  These  he  knew  from 
childhood,  and  they  appealed  to  him  most 
strongly.  Nearly  every  artist  had  already 
painted  the  Tokaido,  but  Hiroshige 
tackled  it  in  an  entirely  novel  manner. 
Like  Monet  he  was  satisfied  with  one 
subject,  but  represented  it  in  all  hours  of 
the  day,  in  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and  in 
all  conditions  of  the  atmosphere.  He 
completely  exhausted  the  subject.  Two 
artists  of  considerable  talent,  Shunchosai 


140 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  Settan,  who,  some  years  later,  treated 
the  same  subject  in  a  similar  manner,  had 
nothing  new  to  add.  Their  works  re¬ 
semble  topographical  handbooks ;  they 
lack  Hiroshige’s  power  of  invention,  his 
keen  observation  of  traffic  and  animated 
crowds,  his  firm  pencil  and  instinct  for 
colour.  He  was  the  first  landscape 
painter  who  gave  to  his  foreground 

figures  almost  as  conspicuous  a  part  as 
the  landscape  itself. 

He  was  an  innovator  in  many  respects. 
He  had  picked  up  a  few  ideas  upon  the 
European  theories  of  perspective,  and 

constantly  made  use  of  them.  His  van¬ 
ishing-points  were  not  always  in  the 

right  place,  but  on  the  whole  his  compo¬ 
sitions  greatly  gained  in  reality  by  these 
experiments.  He  also  recognized  the 

existence  of  projecting  shadows,  and  in¬ 
troduced  faithful  reflections  of  the  moon 
and  lanterns  into  his  pictures,  an  accom- 


Hiroshige.  —  A  Rain-Storm. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  141 

plishment  which  was  sternly  tabooed  by 
the  older  artists. 

He  also  drew  birds,  flowers,  and  carica¬ 
tures,  but  they  are  mediocre  productions. 
His  originality  only  revealed  itself  in  his 
landscape  works.  His  “  Fifty-three  Sta¬ 
tions  of  the  Tokaido,”  printed  in  colours, 
and  his  “Pictorial  Description  of  Yedo,” 
in  twelve  volumes,  and  “  Views  of  the 
Tokaido,”  both  printed  in  black  and  pale 
blue,  are  of  permanent  value.  The  ap¬ 
pearances  of  rain,  mist,  and  wind,  the 
frigidity  of  the  snow-laden  streets  and 
fields,  the  vague  colours  of  night,  have 
rarely  been  more  faithfully  represented. 

It  is  life,  in  fact,  which  fills  his  picture 
with  virile  spirit,  and  breathes  into  them 
a  new  and  astonishing  vitality.  It  is  the 
life  of  the  air,  of  the  water,  of  odours,  and 
of  lights;  the  ungraspable  and  invisible 
life  of  the  spheres,  synthesized  with  an 
admirable  boldness  and  an  eloquent  au- 


142 


JAPANESE  ART 


dacity,  which  are  the  product  of  delicacy 
of  perception,  and  the  indication  of  a 
superior  comprehension  of  the  great  har¬ 
monies  of  nature.  The  nuptial  gaieties 
of  the  spring,  the  burning  drowsiness  of 
summer,  the  anguishes  of  the  autumn  on 
its  bed  of  purple,  under  its  canopies  of 
gold ;  the  splendid  and  cold  bridal  vest¬ 
ments  of  the  winter  —  in  all  of  them  life 
is  resuscitated  and  triumphant.  And  in 
all  this  resplendency  of  nature,  nothing  is 
left  to  the  chance  of  inspiration,  however 
happy,  nor  to  the  hazard  of  an  accidental 
brush-stroke,  however  facile  and  spirited. 

His  colouring  was  as  simple  as  it  was 
superb.  A  sea  painted  apparently  with 
one  sweep  of  indigo,  lined  with  moun¬ 
tains  expressed  in  a  few  daubs  of  violet, 
and  some  calligraphic  flourishes  in  red 
and  green,  representing  a  bridge  and 
trees,  were  sufficient  to  produce  an  ex¬ 
quisite  colour  harmony.  Two  charming 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


143 


colours  which  are  very  noticeable  in  his 
landscapes  are  the  green  of  oxidized 
metal,  as  seen  at  old  weather-beaten 
temple  gates,  and  the  deep  crimson  of 
lacquer.  They  are  a  little  difficult  to 
reproduce  with  our  Western  colours,  but 
I  am  informed  that  cobalt  green  renders 
the  former,  and  Rubens  madder,  with 
dragon’s  blood  for  the  shadow,  the  tone 
of  the  lacquer  almost  exactly. 

The  greatest  exponent  of  the  realistic 
school  is  Hokusai,  a  pupil  of  Shunsho, 
who,  dying  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine, 
left  behind  hundreds  of  kakemonos,  and 
eighty  serial  works  in  over  five  hundred 
volumes. 

All  the  sterling  qualities  of  his  pred¬ 
ecessors  seem  to  have  concentrated  in 
this  fertile  genius.  The  “  Mangwa,”  a 
collection  of  sketches  in  fourteen  volumes, 
and  the  “  One  Hundred  Views  of  Fusi- 
yama,”  which  have  made  his  name  familiar 


144 


JAPANESE  ART 


to  the  Western  world,  fail  to  give  a  com¬ 
plete  idea  of  his  genius.  They  bear 
witness  to  his  marvellous  versatility,  to 
the  virility  of  his  line-work,  and  to  the 
harmony  of  his  colours,  but  they  do  not 
compare  with  his  paintings,  especially 
those  which  represent  the  human  form 
and  the  tranquil  scenes  of  popular  life. 

The  visitor  to  Japan  encounters  Hoku¬ 
sai’s  types  at  every  step.  He  has  immor¬ 
talized  his  countrymen,  walking  about 
in  straw  rain-coats  and  immense  mush¬ 
room-shaped  hats,  and  straw  sandals : 
bareheaded  peasants,  deeply  burned  by 
wind  and  sun ;  patient  mothers  with  smil¬ 
ing  bald  babies  upon  their  backs,  toddling 
by  upon  their  high  wooden  clogs;  and 
robed  merchants  squatting  and  smoking 
their  little  brass  pipes  among  the  count¬ 
less  riddles  of  their  shops. 

The  “  Mangwa  ”  is  a  universal  kaleido¬ 
scope,  where  everything  and  every  type 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


145 


of  being  jostle  each  other  in  a  pictur¬ 
esque  confusion,  an  endless  panorama  in 
which  nothing  escapes  the  keen  analysis 
of  the  artist  and  observer.  There  are  a 
set  of  fat  people,  and  a  set  of  lean  people, 
a  procession  of  drunkards,  beggars,  and 
studies  of  old  men  and  women,  national 
heroes,  fabulous  animals,  demons  and 
apparitions.  He  has  sketched  all  the 
curious  antics  of  which  gymnasts  and 
acrobats  are  capable.  He  has  reproduced 
the  masks  of  the  ancient  religious,  the 
No  dances,  masks  with  exaggerated  ex¬ 
pressions,  masks  of  demons,  or  animals 
and  grotesque  personages.  We  see  coun¬ 
try  folks  at  their  daily  avocations.  He 
introduced  us  into  the  workshops  of 
artisans  —  wood  -  carvers,  smiths,  metal 
workers,  dyers,  weavers,  and  embroiderers 
pass  review.  He  only  held  aloof  from 
the  theatre  and  the  Yoshiwara. 

Notwithstanding  the  directness,  some- 


146 


JAPANESE  ART 


times  a  little  rude,  of  his  method,  no  one 
has  analyzed  nature,  the  character  and 
details  of  things,  and  the  living  appear¬ 
ance  of  figures,  with  more  ease,  intelli¬ 
gence,  and  penetration. 

Like  all  great  artists,  he  was  never  sat¬ 
isfied  with  his  work.  He  wrote  at  the 
age  of  seventy-five  these  humourous  and 
heartfelt  words:  “From  my  sixth  year  on 
a  peculiar  mania  of  drawing  all  sorts  of 
things  took  possession  of  me.  At  my 
fiftieth  year  I  had  published  quite  a 
number  of  works  of  every  possible  de¬ 
scription,  but  none  were  to  my  satisfac¬ 
tion.  Real  work  began  with  me  only  in 
my  seventieth  year.  Now  at  seventy- 
five  the  real  appreciation  of  nature  wakens 
within  me.  I  therefore  hope  that  at 
eighty  I  may  have  arrived  at  a  certain 
power  of  intuition,  which  will  develop 
further  until  my  ninetieth  year,  so  that 
at  the  age  of  one  hundred  I  can  proudly 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


147 


assert  that  my  intuition  is  thoroughly 
artistic.  And,  should  it  be  granted  to  me 
to  live  one  hundred  and  ten  years,  I  hope 
that  a  vital  and  true  comprehension  of 
nature  may  radiate  from  every  one  of  my 
lines  and  dots.” 

(You  see,  Hokusai  is  more  modest  than 
some  of  our  Western  artists !) 

Hokusai  was  as  proficient  in  land¬ 
scapes  as  in  figures.  His  serial  of  Eleven 
Waterfalls  shows  his  fidelity  to  and  re¬ 
spect  for  nature.  The  movement  of  the 
water,  the  outline  of  the  rocks ;  the  local 
colour  and  particular  details  of  each  scene, 
are  marvellously  rendered. 

Study,  it  matters  not  what  picture  of 
Hokusai’s  and  you  will  see  that  even  the 
smallest  details  of  which  they  are  com¬ 
posed  are  logically  in  sympathy  with  one 
another,  that  even  the  smallest  blade  of 
grass  and  slenderest  branch  are  dependent 
on  the  width  and  length  of  the  composi- 


148 


JAPANESE  ART 


tion.  The  exquisite  grace  by  which  we  are 
charmed,  the  force  we  feel,  the  strength  of 
construction  which  they  bring  before  us, 
the  splendid  poetry  which  stirs  our  souls 
with  admiration,  proceed  from  this  exacti¬ 
tude.  We  truly  seem,  in  the  contempla¬ 
tion  of  these  pictures,  to  scent  the  odour 
of  the  earth,  and  to  feel  the  lightest  breath 
from  heaven.  The  breeze  from  the  sea 
brings  to  one’s  ears  the  sonority  of  the 
wide  waves,  or  the  softly  murmured  sound 
of  ripples  on  the  beaches  of  creeks  and 
gulfs  of  silver  and  blue.  We  see  appear 
successively  the  banks  of  the  bay  of 
Tokyo  at  all  seasons  and  all  hours:  her 
fields  joyous  with  the  gaiety  of  the  har¬ 
vest;  the  same  fields,  sad  and  desolate, 
with  naked  trees  under  the  cold  gray  sky 
of  winter;  on  frosty  days  irradiated  by  the 
sun  into  the  shimmering  splendour  of  a 
dust  of  diamonds;  in  fogs,  thick  and 
heavy,  where  the  vapour  expands  in  waves 


Hokusai.  —  View  of  Mount  Fusiyama. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


149 


which  are  visible  and  veritably  moving. 
In  the  blossoming  trees  upon  the  banks 
of  the  stream  one  finds  a  beauty  truly 
Japanesque.  His  breaking  up  of  the  ice 
in  the  stream,  where,  driven  by  the  cur¬ 
rent,  it  is  piled  up  against  its  banks  in 
quaint  and  dismal  forms,  is  at  once  tender 
and  tragic. 

But,  above  all  else,  he  was  the  painter 
of  the  Fusiyama,  the  sacred  mountain 
“  of  which  all  poets  and  women  of  the 
island  dream.”  It  appears  in  nine  out  of 
ten  of  all  his  landscape  compositions.  No 
matter  what  his  theme,  the  snow-covered 
summit  of  Fuji  appears  somewhere  in  the 
distance.  He  has  shown  it  to  us  at  all 
the  different  hours  of  the  day,  through  the 
seasons  and  the  ever-changing  phenomena 
of  light.  We  see  it  reveal  its  rough  out¬ 
lines  in  a  cloudless  sky,  through  the  meshes 
of  a  netted  sail,  in  the  rays  of  the  setting 
sun,  in  rain  and  snow  storms,  through  reedy 


JAPANESE  ART 


150 

shores  where  the  wild  geese  cackle,  and  as 
a  ghostly  silhouette  against  the  nocturnal 
sky.  Monet’s  “  Rouen  cathedrals  ”  and 
“  Haystacks  ”  are  merely  child’s  play  in 
comparison  to  these  profound  studies. 

A  Japanese  writer  has  described  his  ver¬ 
satility  in  the  following  charming  manner: 

“  I  rose  from  my  seat  at  the  window, 
where  I  had  idled  the  whole  day  long  — 
softly,  softly.  Then  I  was  up  and  away. 
I  saw  the  countless  green  leaves  tremble 
in  the  densely  embowered  tops  of  the 
trees ;  I  watched  the  flaky  clouds  in  the 
blue  sky,  collecting  fantastically  into 
shapes  torn  and  multiform.  I  sauntered 
here  and  there,  carelessly,  without  aim  or 
volition.  Now  I  crossed  the  Bridge  of 
Apes  and  loitered  as  the  echo  repeated 
the  cry  of  wild  cranes.  Now  I  was  in  the 
cherry  grove  of  Owari.  Through  the 
mists,  shifting  across  the  coast  of  Miho, 
I  descried  the  famous  ponies  of  Suminoye. 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT  I  5  I 

Now  I  stood  trembling  upon  the  bridge 
of  Kameji  and  looked  down  in  astonish¬ 
ment  at  the  gigantic  Fuki  plants.  The 
roar  of  the  dizzy  waterfall  of  Ono  re¬ 
sounded  in  my  ear.  A  shudder  ran 
through  me.  It  was  only  a  dream  which 
I  dreamed,  lying  in  bed  near  my  window, 
with  this  book  of  pictures  by  the  master 
as  a  cushion  beneath  my  head.” 

It  is  always  the  same  thought  that 
guides  Hokusai  through  these  multiplied 
aspects  of  nature.  He  seizes  upon  the 
characteristics  of  a  field,  of  a  bit  of  the 
ocean,  of  a  rock,  a  tree,  a  flower  or  figure, 
in  its  most  individual  expression,  in  its 
passing  charm  of  motion  and  harmony  of 
colour.  Study  these  kakemonos,  colour 
prints,  and  sketch-books,  in  the  order  of 
their  dates,  and  you  will  each  time  see 
that  the  painter’s  methods  improve,  that 
his  sensibility  to  the  mysteries  of  nature 
becomes  more  developed,  that  his  eye  dis- 


152 


JAPANESE  ART 


covers  new  and  unknown  forms  and 
effects ;  but  you  do  not  feel  from  his 
work  any  hesitation  in  his  art,  any  uncer¬ 
tainty  of  a  mind  seduced  yesterday  by  one 
ideal,  and  to-day  troubled  by  another. 
His  step  is  always  in  advance,  in  the  same 
direction,  firm,  resolute,  and  unwavering; 
one  might  say  that  he  was  urged  forward 
by  some  irresistible  force  of  nature,  so 
regular  and  powerful  is  the  impulse  which 
carries  him  along. 

Ever  since  the  day  when  Hokusai  took 
up  the  brush  for  the  first  time,  he  felt, 
even  when  he  was  not  yet  perfectly  sure 
of  himself,  what  he  wanted  to  do,  and  he 
did  it  by  processes  of  his  own,  travelling 
along  a  straight  path  toward  conquest, 
without  deviating  an  instant  from  his 
route,  and  without  losing  himself  in  pur¬ 
suit  of  vague  ideals  or  confused  aspira¬ 
tions.  Endowed  with  a  robust  moral 
nature  and  a  healthy  intellect,  fortified  by 


THE  REALISTIC  MOVEMENT 


153 


a  life  of  constant  intimacy  with  nature, 
there  was  in  him  no  trace  of  that  contem¬ 
porary  malady  so  fatal  to  artistic  produc¬ 
tion  and  development,  restlessness.  The 
contentions  of  opposing  schools  and  the 
caprices  of  aestheticism  made  no  impres¬ 
sion  upon  his  mind  of  bronze,  vibrantly 
nervous,  and  delicately  impressionable  to 
all  emotions  as  it  was.  He  was  all  of 
one  piece  in  the  subtle  and  complicated 
mechanism  of  his  genius,  admirably  con¬ 
stituted  to  receive  the  most  different  sen¬ 
sations,  to  create  the  most  opposite  forms. 

He  was  the  contemporary  of  some 
mighty  names,  yet  there  scarcely  was  to 
be  found  among  them  all  a  spirit  more 
thoroughly  original ;  and  surely,  when  the 
petty  conflicts  of  passing  taste  are  laid  at 
rest  for  ever,  it  will  be  found  that  this  man 
has  written  his  signature,  indelibly,  on 
one  of  the  principal  pages  of  the  universal 
history  of  art. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  ON 
WESTERN  CIVILIZATION 

HIRTY  to  forty  years  ago  Japa¬ 
nese  art  was  almost  unknown  to 
the  Western  world.  Previous  to 
the  London  International  Exhibition  of 
1862,  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  was 
absolutely  unrepresented  in  the  European 
museums  and  art  galleries.  Only  at  The 
Hague  there  was  a  small  collection  of 
natural  and  industrial  products,  which, 
however,  afforded  but  little  informa¬ 
tion. 

The  first  appreciator  of  Japanese  art 
was  probably  Louis  XIV.  In  his  old  age, 

r54 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 55 

he  is  said  to  have  taken  a  fancy  to  “  idols, 
pagodas,  and  stuffs  painted  with  flowers,” 
that  came  to  the  court  of  Versailles  from 
the  Far  East,  in  chests  of  cedarwood. 
They  probably  reached  Trianon,  as  they 
did  the  Dresden  court,  via  Maceo. 

The  Portugese  missionaries  in  the  six¬ 
teenth  century,  and  a  century  later  the 
Dutch  merchants  allowed  to  occupy  a 
factory  at  Nagasaki,  were  in  the  habit  of 
shipping  a  few  articles  for  Europe,  chiefly 
lacquer  cabinets  and  dinner  sets  made  to 
order  after  European  models.  They  were 
exhibited  and  sold  in  shops  and  bazaars, 
and  can  still  occasionally  be  met  with  in 
old  country  houses  and  curiosity  shops 
in  England,  Holland,  France,  and  Spain. 
The  workmanship  of  these  articles,  mostly 
Hitzen  ware,  painted  in  blue,  red,  or  blue 
and  gold,  was  exceedingly  rough,  and  as 
unlike  the  superior  native  work  as  can  be 
well  imagined.  The  Portuguese  mission- 


JAPANESE  ART 


156 

aries  do  not  seem  to  have  formed  any 
idea  of  the  artistic  originality  of  the  “  bar¬ 
barians  ”  whom  they  had  come  to  convert ; 
and  the  Dutch  merchants  never  knew, 
save  in  a  very  imperfect  manner,  Japanese 
art  properly  so  called.  Up  to  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  major¬ 
ity  of  the  Western  public  remained  in 
ignorance  of  the  fact  that  there  was  in 
Nippon  a  national  art  quite  independent 
of  Chinese  art  —  an  art  having,  as  that  of 
Greece,  of  Italy  or  of  the  Netherlands,  its 
history,  its  schools,  its  monuments  and 
masterpieces,  and  great  masters. 

The  London  exposition  of  1862,  with 
its  “  Japanese  court,”  opened  up  this  sealed 
book  to  the  Western  world.  It  came  as 
a  surprise ;  one  had  not  expected  such 
exquisite  workmanship,  and  importers  and 
scholars  at  once  set  out  to  explore  the 
unknown  realms  of  Eastern  industry. 
The  London  display  was  followed  by 


Sketches  of  Cranes  for  Decorative  Work, 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 57 

the  exhibits  which  Prince  Satsuma  sent 
to  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867.  A 
few  years  later  the  magnificent  collection 
of  bronzes,  wood-carvings  and  pottery, 
formed  by  M.  H.  Cernuschi  during  his 
travels  in  Japan,  China,  Java,  Ceylon  and 
India,  created  a  sensation,  and  the  art 
treasures  of  Japan  were  pronounced  the 
most  perfect. 

They  were  regarded  as  a  new  revelation 
in  the  decorative  arts.  A  number  of  able 
writers  and  energetic  scholars  —  America, 
England,  France,  and  Germany  seemed 
suddenly  to  compete  in  turning  out  Japon- 
ists  —  began  to  make  special  studies  of 
one  or  the  other  branch  of  art,  often 
devoting  their  whole  lifetime  to  the  inves¬ 
tigation.  The  Japanese  government  con¬ 
tributed  matchless  collections,  carefully 
selected  on  a  large  scale,  to  the  Vienna 
Weltausstellung  of  1875,  and  the  whole 
nation,  seized  with  a  fever  for  European 


JAPANESE  ART 


158 

material  accomplishments,  yielded  up  its 
ancient  treasures  with  a  readiness  which 
was  afterward  repented  of. 

The  occasion  was  a  rare  one,  and  the 
London  importers,  as  those  of  every  Con¬ 
tinental  capital,  did  not  fail  to  profit  by  it 
Everywhere  Japanese  silks,  embroideries, 
bronzes,  art  pottery,  lacquer,  and  carved 
wood  and  ivory,  were  displayed  in  the 
shop-  windows.  Large  consignments  of 
Japanese  goods  arrived  almost  monthly 
in  the  various  European  ports;  large 
special  sales  were  the  order  of  the  day. 
In  twenty  years  these  “  promoters  ”  almost 
drained  Japan,  taking  away  all  they  could 
lay  their  hands  upon,  and  sending  the 
treasures  pell-mell  to  Paris,  to  Hamburg, 
to  London,  or  to  New  York. 

Everybody  seemed  surprised  at  the  va¬ 
riety  and  richness  of  these  “  novelties  ;  ” 
even  the  faults  in  perspective  and  model¬ 
ling  enchanted  the  enthusiasts,  as  a  pro- 


Silk  Embroidery  for  a  Screen 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 59 

test  against  the  too  rigid  rules  exacted 
in  Western  art.  A  perfect  furor  for 
everything  Japanese  swept  over  Euro¬ 
pean  countries ;  Paris  in  particular  went 
mad  with  Japomania.  There  was  hardly 
a  house  in  the  Monceau  Park  district, 
which  had  not  furnished  some  rooms 
with  Japanese  lacquer-work,  bronzes,  and 
tapestries. 

Edmond  and  Jules  de  Goncourt  be¬ 
came  its  champions,  Zola  invested  thou¬ 
sands  of  francs  in  Japanese  curios.  And 
among  the  artists  who  appeared  at  the 
sales,  one  encountered  celebrities  like 
Alfred  Stevens,  Diaz,  Fortuny,  James  Tis- 
sot,  Alphonse  Legros,  Whistler,  Carolus 
Duran,  and  the  engravers  Bracquemont 
and  Jules  Jacquemart. 

The  artists  realized  that  this  nation  of 
the  Far  East  had  a  complete  and  con¬ 
nected  artistic  development,  that,  at  cer¬ 
tain  periods  of  its  history,  it  had  produced 


160  JAPANESE  ART 

works  in  which  none  of  the  elements  of 
great  art  were  lacking,  and  that  in  certain 
respects  Japanese  art  was  even  superior 
to  their  own. 

European  artists  have  equalled  the 
Japanese  in  clever  grouping,  vigorous 
action,  force  of  expression,  passion  for 
form  and  colour,  and  even  in  sketchy  fig¬ 
ure  delineation  without  the  appliance  of 
shadows,  but  they  have  never  reached  that 
unlimited  suggestiveness  which  even  the 
most  insignificant  Japanese  picture-book 
contains.  This  suggestiveness  had  con¬ 
quered  modern  art. 

It  came  at  the  right  time.  Too  much 
philosophy  had  been  written  in  Europe  ; 
everything,  from  the  most  commonplace 
to  the  most  sublime,  had  been  collected, 
catalogued,  commented  upon,  raked  up 
merely  for  the  sake  of  raking  up  barren 
knowledge.  It  now  became  necessary  to 
remove  the  dust  and  cobwebs  that  had 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  l6l 

settled  on  it,  and  infuse  new  life  by  puri¬ 
fying,  remodelling  and  developing  that 
heapr  of  knowledge,.  And  what  could  ac¬ 
complish  this  better  than  Japanese  art? 
Its  influence  was  everywhere  felt.  It 
called  forth,  for  instance,  the  short  story 
literature,  in  which  Andersen,  Turgenjew, 
Verga,  and  the  modern  French  and  Scan¬ 
dinavian  writers  are  masters,  —  a  tendency 
toward  brevity  and  conciseness  of  expres¬ 
sion,  which  suggests  a  good  deal  more 
than  it  actually  tells.  Its  law  of  repetition 
with  slight  variation,  we  can  trace  in  Poe’s 
poems,  the  work  of  the  French  symbolists, 
and,  above  all  else,  in  the  writings  of 
Maurice  Maeterlinck,  that  quaint  combi¬ 
nation  of  Greek,  mediaeval,  and  Japanese 
art  reminiscences. 

Its  influence  is  also  palpable  in  the 
descriptive  music  of  to-day,  in  the  com¬ 
position  of  the  Neo-Wagnerian  school, 
which  prefers  tonal  impressions  to  theo- 


162 


JAPANESE  ART 


retie  development,  and  does  away  with 
the  finished  forms  of  classic  masters,  with 
conscientious  treatment  of  counterpoint, 
graceful  codas  dying  away  in  clear  sounds, 
or  pedal  notes  with  correct  harmony. 
The  younger  composers,  affecting  gro¬ 
tesqueness,  which  is  natural  to  the  Japa¬ 
nese,  endeavour  to  surprise  their  listeners 
by  introducing  a  dissonant  interval  when 
a  consonant  interval  is  most  expected,  or 
breaking  a  phrase  which  is  supposed  to 
end  in  an  easily  eligible  cadence,  in  the 
midst  of  a  bar.  Polyphony  calls  attention 
to  four  or  five  different  sides  at  once,  an 
impression  such  as  one  received  looking 
at  a  Japanese  colour  print,  in  which  half 
a  dozen  different  colours  strike  the  retina 
simultaneously. 

The  Japanese  influence  is  naturally 
most  evident  in  painting;  in  the  noc¬ 
turnes  of  Whistler ;  in  Manet’s  ambition 
to  see  things  flat ;  in  the  peculiar  space 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 63 

composition  of  Degas,  Skarbina,  the  Ger¬ 
man  secessionists,  and  the  poster  painters ; 
in  the  parallelism  of  vertical  lines  as  prac¬ 
tised  by  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  and  the 
parallelism  of  horizontal  lines  in  D.  W. 
Tryon’s  landscapes;  in  the  frugal  Kano- 
school-like  colouring  of  Steinlen’s  Gil 
Bias  illustrations,  which  have  caused  a 
revolution  in  modern  illustration ;  in  the 
disregard  for  symmetrical  composition  of 
the  impressionists ;  in  the  eccentric  draw¬ 
ing  of  the  symbolists;  and  in  the  serial 
treatment  of  one  phase  of  nature,  as 
practised  by  Monet.  ’ 

Nearly  two-thirds  of  all  painters  who 
have  become  prominent  during  the  last 
twenty  years  have  learnt,  in  one  instance 
or  another,  from  the  Japanese. 

It  is  a  strange  coincidence  that  modern 
painting,  just  after  succeeding  in  freeing 
itself  from  the  fetters  of  classicism  that 
had  barred  its  development  for  so  many 


164 


JAPANESE  ART 


decades,  should  embrace,  scarcely  having 
reached  maturity  and  self-reliance,  the  si¬ 
re  nic  charms  of  Japanese  art.  In  the 
landscapes  of  Hiroshige  and  Hokusai  the 
artists  discovered  not  only  a  new  and 
natural  choice  of  subjects,  but  also  a  new 
and  natural  treatment.  They  learnt  to 
understand  the  modesty  of  nature  and 
to  dare  to  represent  it  with  the  simplest 
means.  For  the  first  time,  they  noted  the 
values  of  space,  the  grace  and  force  of  sil¬ 
houette,  the  effectiveness  of  unframed 
composition,  and  the  beauty  of  fugitive 
impressions,  which  impressionism  taught 
at  the  same  time,  by  a  scientific  applica¬ 
tion  of  unmixed  colours. 

I  am  also  convinced  that  the  pre- 
Raphaelites  have  borrowed  their  method 
of  perspective,  which  makes  all  landscapes 
look  as  if  they  had  been  painted  from 
an  elevation  —  the  mountains  towering 
up  behind  one  another  —  and  teaches 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 65 

them  to  avoid  difficulties  by  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  clouds  in  all  sorts  of  incon¬ 
gruous  places,  from  the  Japanese.  (Some 
of  Kiyonaga’s  compositions  have  a  strange 
resemblance  to  those  of  Strudwick,  Dever- 
ell,  Burne-Jones,  just  as  Takehasa  Shun- 
chosai  seems  to  have  been  a  forerunner  of 
the  Tachists.) 

Some  critics  will  no  doubt  shake  their 
heads  at  this,  and  refer  to  my  statement 
that  Japanese  art  was  not  known  in  Europe 
when  the  pre-Raphaelites  began  their 
work ;  true  enough,  it  was  not  as  popular 
as  it  is  now,  but  a  few  rare  pieces  had 
found  their  way  to  England,  and,  falling 
into  the  hands  of  these  dreamy  painters, 
undoubtedly  had  impressed  them  deeply, 
a  good  deal  more  than  they  would  do 
now,  when  Japanese  bric-a-brac  can  be 
found  in  every  house. 

Even  the  variety  stage  has  profited  by 
the  Japanese  movement.  I  realized  it 


i66 


JAPANESE  ART 


when  I  saw  the  Barrison  sisters.  They 
were  an  object-lesson  that  might  have  in¬ 
terested  any  student  of  art.  There  were 
five  pretty,  gay  ladies  of  fascinating  lean¬ 
ness  and  awkwardness  a  la  Chavannes, 
who  could  neither  sing  nor  dance,  but  were 
simply  drilled  by  a  manager  to  expound¬ 
ing  in  coquettish  movements  and  attitudes 
a  French- Japanese  code  of  frivolity,  and 
who  thus  unconsciously  expressed  the 
Japanese  principle  of  repetition  with 
slight  variation.  But  as  no  other  Amer¬ 
ican  critic,  not  even  J.  G.  Huneker,  has 
dwelt  upon  their  aesthetic  value  in  this 
respect,  I  may  after  all  have  been  mis¬ 
taken  in  my  judgment. 

Indisputable,  however,  is  the  influence 
of  Japanese  pictorialism  on  our  interior 
decoration.  The  most  striking  feature 
of  all  Japanese  interiors,  to  the  average 
foreigner,  is  the  total  absence  of  furniture. 
Neither  tables,  chairs,  beds,  nor  wash- 


Bronze  Sword-Guards  and  Corner  -  Pieces. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 67 

stands  appear ;  the  reason  being  that  the 
first  two  are  scarcely  ever  used,  that  the 
futan  or  bed  consists  of  a  thick,  soft, 
quilt  which  is  always  rolled  up  and  stored 
away  in  a  cupboard  during  the  day,  while 
the  wash-stand  is  almost  superfluous  in  a 
country  where  the  commonest  labourer 
often  takes  five  baths  a  day,  and  would 
die  of  shame  if  he  bathed  less  than  three 
times  daily.  Ewers,  it  is  true,  are  used 
for  the  hands,  but,  like  the  bed  and  all 
other  furniture,  are  concealed  in  cup¬ 
boards,  so  that  the  general  appearance  of 
a  Japanese  room  is  somewhat  bare. 

The  Japanese,  who  hide  every  nail  in 
the  woodwork  of  their  houses  under 
bronze  shields  of  the  most  exquisite 
workmanship,  have  also  taught  us  sim¬ 
plicity  in  domestic  surroundings. 

They  have  shown  us  that  a  room  need 
not  be  as  overcrowded  as  a  museum  in 
order  to  make  an  artistic  impression ; 


JAPANESE  ART 


1 68 

that  true  elegance  lies  in  simplicity,  and 
that  a  wall  fitted  out  in  green  or  gray 
burlap,  with  a  few  etchings  or  photo¬ 
graphs,  after  Botticelli,  or  other  old  mas¬ 
ters,  is  beautiful  and  more  dignified  than 
yards  of  imitation  gobelins,  or  repousse 
leather  tapestry,  hung  from  ceiling  to 
floor  with  paintings  in  heavy  golden 
frames. 

We  have  outgrown  the  beauty  of 
Rogers  statuettes,  and  tired  of  seeing 
Romney  backgrounds  in  our  portraits 
and  photographs. 

The  elaborate  patterns  of  Morris  have 
given  way  to  wall-paper  of  one  uniform 
colour,  and  modem  furniture  is  slowly 
freeing  itself  from  the  influence  of  former 
historic  periods,  and  trying  to  evolve  into 
a  style  of  its  own,  based  on  lines  which 
nature  dictates.  Whistler  and  Alexander 
have  taught  the  same  lesson  in  the  back- 
ground  of  portraits.  Everywhere  in  their 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 69 

pictures  we  encounter  the  thin  black  line 
of  the  oblong  frame,  which  plays  such  an 
important  part  in  the  interior  decoration 
of  to-day,  and  which,  like  the  kakemono, 
invariably  conveys  a  delightful  division  of 
space. 

A  lady  artist,  interested  in  interior  deco¬ 
ration,  remarked  to  me  one  day,  in  a  most 
nonchalant  manner : 

“  I  think  it  is  entirely  wrong  to  decorate 
the  walls  of  a  public  building  with  human 
figures.  It  might  be  done  like  the  Alham¬ 
bra  ;  that  is  one  way.  And  my  studio  — 
that  is  another,”  and  she  made  a  sweeping 
gesture  about  her. 

I  gazed  about  the  studio  in  silent  won¬ 
der  as  to  what  my  hostess  meant.  There 
were  four  bare  walls,  stained  with  an 
agreeable  quieting  greenish  gray,  a  couch 
in  black  and  gold,  a  tasteful  screen,  a  few 
ornate  chairs,  nothing  else. 

“Why,  that’s  the  Japanese  style  of  fur- 


170 


JAPANESE  ART 


nishing  a  room  —  to  leave  it  empty!”  I 
thought;  “  everybody  can  do  that.”  For 
I  was  aware  that  an  artist  friend  of  mine 
had  selected  the  colour  for  the  staining  of 
various  studios  in  the  building,  and  that 
I,  at  the  very  time,  could  have  taken  a 
studio  next  door  which,  if  I  had  applied 
the  elegance  and  suggestiveness  of  empti¬ 
ness,  would  have  looked  exactly  like  hers, 
and  made  me  also  an  expert  in  mural  and 
interior  decoration.  It  is  not  quite  as 
easy  as  all  that,  however.  It  was  this 
lady’s  merit,  and  one  that  cannot  be 
underrated,  to  know  enough  to  leave  the 
walls  bare  and  not  to  overcrowd  the 
room  with  unnecessary  furniture  and  bric- 
a-brac. 

Such  simplicity  is  dignified  and  beauti¬ 
ful,  and  yet  an  empty  room  can  hardly  be 
considered  a  work  of  art  if  not  accom¬ 
panied  by  a  luxury  of  refinement  in  the 
smallest  details. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 7 1 

Experiments  of  this  sort  are  valuable  in 
helping  the  cause,  however.  Her  studio 
has  been  a  lesson  to  me ;  it  has  shown  me 
how  easily  the  Japanese  style  of  furnish¬ 
ing  a  house  could  be  Americanized,  and 
I  have  watched  with  pleasure  how  good 
taste  in  that  direction  is  rapidly  spreading. 

In  this  particular  respect,  the  innova¬ 
tion  has  done  a  vast  deal  of  good. 

Less  fortunate  is  its  influence  on  West¬ 
ern  art.  If  it  were  simply  the  endeavour 
of  our  artists,  by  means  of  careful  research 
and  comparison,  to  grasp  the  fundamen¬ 
tal  laws  of  Japanese  art,  no  criticism  could 
be  made.  But  artists  apparently  care  for 
nothing  less  than  a  critical  knowledge  of 
both  Eastern  and  Western  art.  They  are 
satisfied  with  imitating  surface  qualities. 
It  is  true  that  these  qualities  are  ex¬ 
tremely  interesting,  that  they  have  helped 
to  make  our  modern  art  extremely  inter¬ 
esting.  But  very  little  is  gained  thereby. 


1 72 


JAPANESE  ART 


I  prefer,  at  any  time,  an  Okyo  marine 
to  Whistler’s  “  The  Ocean,”  or  a  Hiro¬ 
shige  bridge  scene  to  the  “  Fragment  of 
Old  Battersea  Bridge,”  by  the  same 
painter.  They  are  perfect  translations, 
but,  after  all,  mere  translations.  And 
Whistler’s  yellow  buskin  ladies,  which 
have  something  of  the  true  spirit  of  the 
“living  tradition”  of  Japanese  art,  are  to 
be  preferred  at  any  time. 

The  sooner  our  painters  get  rid  of  the 
Japanese  craze,  the  better  for  them,  and 
they  would  get  rid  of  it  if  they  would 
study  Japanese  art  a  little  more  conscien¬ 
tiously,  and  under  the  surface. 

In  the  same  way  as  it  takes  a  foreigner 
years  of  study  and  close  communion  with 
Eastern  life  to  understand  the  symbolism 
of  the  No  dances,  it  would  be  necessary 
for  one  who  wishes  to  become  an  expert 
on  Japanese  painting,  to  devote  an  equally 
long  time  to  the  study  of  their  laws  of 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  JAPANESE  ART  1 73 

construction,  which  are  as  rigid  and  irre¬ 
futable  as  those  of  Greek  art. 

And  for  such  reasons,  we  can  derive  lit¬ 
tle  more  than  an  aesthetic  enjoyment  from 
an  occasional  contemplation  of  Japanese 
art.  As  to  the  adopting  of  their  style  as 
the  ideal  of  our  Western  art,  it  seems  to 
me  hopelessly  illogical;  only  a  talented 
native,  who  sees  things  as  the  Japanese 
see  them,  and  to  whom  the  suggestive 
touch  has  almost  become  a  racial  trait, 
could  still  create  something  original  along 
those  lines.  A  foreigner,  no  matter  how 
catholic  his  mind  and  how  dexterous  his 
hand,  could  never  surpass  the  valueless 
production  of  an  excellent  imitation.  He 
might  enrich  his  own  style  by  borrowing 
certain  qualities,  but  he  will  waste  his 
faculties  in  trying  to  adopt  it,  for  adop¬ 
tion  is  utterly  impossible. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


JAPANESE  ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE 

N  opening  a  book  on  the  history 
of  architecture,  in  nine  out  of  ten 
cases  one  will  not  find  more  than 
three  or  four  pages  dealing  with  the  land 
of  chrysanthemums. 

In  certain  branches  of  knowledge,  it  is 
apparently  still  the  fashion  for  one  half  of 
the  world  to  ignore  absolutely  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  the  other  half. 

And  yet  Japanese  architecture  affords 
such  a  vast  field  for  interesting  study  and 
analysis.  It  is  the  only  timber  architec¬ 
ture  that  has  risen  to  a  monumental  and 
artistic  importance.  Its  architectural  lan¬ 
guage  is  wider  in  its  range,  more  complex 


174 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 75 

and  varied  than  that  of  Norway  and 
Switzerland,  and,  in  regard  to  seemliness 
and  grace,  more  adequately  equipped 
than  that  of  any  nation  in  the  Far  East. 
The  Japanese  style  seems  to  have  orig¬ 
inated  without  any  painful  effort.  It 
was  a  natural  growth,  so  individual  and 
powerful  that  it  could  utilize,  with  impu¬ 
nity,  angles,  curves,  and  projections  which 
elsewhere  might  have  appeared  awkward 
and  hideous,  and  even  be  successful  in 
making  them  beautiful. 

Japanese  architecture,  however,  must 
be  contemplated  rather  from  the  painter’s 
or  landscape-gardener’s  standpoint  than 
from  the  architect’s  point  of  view.  It  is 
essentially  impressionistic,  and  its  power 
lies  more  in  colour  effects  than  in  form 
or  outline. 

To  gaze  at  a  temple  at  night,  silhouet¬ 
ting  its  grotesque  shape  against  the  starry 
sky,  weirdly  dreamlike,  strangely  illumi- 


176 


JAPANESE  ART 


nated  by  rows  of  paper  lanterns  hung  all 
along  its  curving  eaves,  is  a  sight  never  to 
be  forgotten. 

A  temple  is  never  designed  as  an  iso¬ 
lated  object,  but  always  as  a  feature  of  the 
surrounding  landscape,  and  thus  it  ap¬ 
pears  more  like  great  splashes  of  crimson, 
lacquer,  and  gold  down  a  mountainside 
than  a  symmetrical  distribution  of  col¬ 
umns,  windows,  and  wall  spaces.  Not¬ 
withstanding  this  picturesqueness  of 
conception,  however,  which  utilizes  the 
whole  landscape  as  a  canvas,  and  appeals 
purely  to  our  visual  apprehension,  it  is  in 
detail  that  the  Japanese  architect  most 
excels,  for  if  he  conceives  like  a  giant,  he 
invariably  finishes  like  a  jeweller.  Every 
detail,  to  the  very  nails,  which  are  not 
dull  surfaces,  but  rendered  exquisite  orna¬ 
ments,  is  a  work  of  art.  Everywhere  we 
encounter  friezes  and  carvings  in  relief, 
representing  in  quaint  colour  harmonies, 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 77 

flowers  and  birds,  or  heavenly  spirits,  play¬ 
ing  upon  flutes  and  stringed  instruments. 
The  pavement  is  executed  in  coloured 
slabs,  and  the  pillars  are  gilded  from  top 
to  bottom.  Even  the  stairs  of  some 
temples  are  fashioned  of  gold  lacquer. 
Gold  is  the  neutral  colour  of  Japanese 
decoration. 

Some  of  the  temple  interiors  are  like 
visions  of  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights. 
Imagine  a  sanctuary  where  the  ceiling  is 
-  as  magnificent  as  painting,  sculpture,  lac¬ 
quer,  and  precious  metals  can  make  it,  rep¬ 
resenting  a  dark  blue  sea  in  which  golden 
dragons  are  sporting,  pierced  at  intervals, 
by  gorgeous  columns,  gold-lacquered  and 
capped  with  embossed  bronze,  and  where 
walls  and  ceiling  are  reflected,  as  in  a 
forest  pool,  in  the  black  floor  of  polished 
lacquer. 

Nearly  every  building,  large  or  small,  is 
built  of  wood.  As  the  islands  are  exposed 


178 


JAPANESE  ART 


to  almost  incessant  shocks  from  earth¬ 
quakes,  it  has  proved  the  most  durable  of 
materials,  and,  as  in  Tyrol,  the  Bernese 
Oberland,  and  the  mountainous  districts 
of  Norway,  no  brick  or  stone  is  introduced 
except  as  foundation.  This,  however,  did 
not  hinder  the  Eastern  architects  from 
grappling  with  the  gravest  mechanical  dif¬ 
ficulties  in  structures  even  of  stupendous 
size. 

Colossal  structures  are  common  enough 
in  Japan.  The  porch  of  the  great  temple 
of  Todaji  rests  on  pillars  one  hundred  feet 
in  height  by  twelve  feet  in  circumference ; 
and  this  porch  simply  furnishes  access  to 
another  porch  of  equal  size,  behind  which 
stands  the  temple  itself,  of  whose  size  we 
may  form  some  idea  from  the  fact,  that 
within  it  contains  a  colossal  image  of  the 
Buddha,  fifty-three  feet  in  height,  with  a 
nimbus  surrounding  the  head  eighty-three 
feet  in  diameter.  Not  less  vast  are  the 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 79 

proportions  of  the  great  sanctuary  at 
Nara,  where  each  column,  a  hundred  feet 
in  height,  consists  of  a  single  stem.  It 
is  astonishing  to  learn  that  these  struc¬ 
tures,  vast  in  size  and  splendid  in  the 
decoration  of  every  part  of  their  bay 
work,  blazing  with  gold  and  colours,  as 
gorgeous  now  after  a  lapse  of  a  thou¬ 
sand  years  as  they  were  at  first,  belong  to 
an  age  compared  to  whose  remoteness  the 
European  cathedrals  must  almost  be  called 
modern. 

The  Temple  of  Nara  was  nearly  three 
centuries  old  when  Edward  the  Confessor 
laid  the  foundation  stone  of  his  church  of 
Westminster,  and  Harold  reared  the  mas¬ 
sive  piers  and  arches  of  Waltham.  Dr. 
Christopher  Dresser,  who  wrote  very  in¬ 
terestingly  and  instructively  on  Japanese 
architecture,  asked  very  appropriately : 
“  What  buildings  can  we  show  in  England 
which  have  existed  since  the  eighth  cen- 


l8o  JAPANESE  ART 

tury  and  are  yet  almost  as  perfect  as  when 
first  built  ?  and  yet  our  buildings  rest  on  a 
solid  foundation,  and  not  on  earth  which  is 
constantly  rocked  by  natural  convulsion.” 

The  ingenuity  of  European  engineers 
and  architects  would  probably  be  really  at 
a  loss  in  dealing  with  the  problems  in¬ 
volved  in  the  erection  and  support  of  the 
magnificent  pagoda  of  Nikko,  and  in 
guarding  the  lofty  tower  against  the  force 
of  earthquakes.  In  this  building  Doctor 
Dresser  noted  with  surprise  an  apparent 
waste  of  material.  He  did  not  understand 
why  an  enormous  log  of  wood  ascended 
in  the  centre  of  the  structure  from  its 
base  to  the  apex.  This  mass  of  timber, 
he  tells  us,  is  nearly  two  feet  in  diameter, 
and  near  the  lower  end  a  log  equally 
large  was  bolted  to  each  of  the  four  sides 
of  this  central  mass.  His  argument  of 
the  waste  of  material  was  met  by  the 
rejoinder  that  the  walls  must  be  strong 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  l8l 

enough  to  support  the  central  block ;  and 
in  his  replying  that  the  central  block  was 
not  supported  by  the  sides,  he  was  led  to 
the  top,  and  there  made  to  see  that  this 
huge  central  mass  was  suspended  like  the 
clapper  of  a  bell.  On  descending  to  the 
bottom,  and  lying  on  the  ground,  he  could 
see,  further,  that  there  was  an  inch  of 
space  intervening  between  the  soil  and 
this  mighty  pendulum,  which  goes  far 
toward  insuring  the  safety  of  the  building 
during  earthquakes. 

For  centuries,  at  least,  this  centre  of 
gravity  has,  by  its  swinging,  been  kept 
within  the  base;  and  it  would  assuredly 
be  impossible  to  adduce  stronger  evidence 
of  scientific  forethought  and  calculation 
on  the  part  of  architects  in  dealing  with 
a  problem  of  extreme  difficulty. 

Japanese  buildings  may  be  broadly  di¬ 
vided  into  domestic  dwellings,  palaces, 
and  ecclesiastical  edifices. 


182 


JAPANESE  ART 


Of  these,  domestic  dwellings  are  the 
simplest,  being  derived  directly  from  the 
hut  of  the  Aino,  and  consist  for  the  most 
part  of  vertical  beams  (resting  upon  stones) 
mortised  to  horizontal  beams,  and  carry¬ 
ing  a  heavy  roof,  thatched,  shingled,  or 
tiled.  They  are  really  nothing  more  than 
roofs  standing  on  a  series  of  legs. 

As  a  rule  there  are  no  permanent  walls, 
the  sides  being  composed  in  winter  of 
amado,  or  wooden  sliding  screens,  capa¬ 
ble  of  being  folded  up  and  packed  away, 
and  in  summer  of  shoji,  or  oiled  paper 
slides,  translucent,  but  not  transparent. 
Thus,  in  warm  weather,  all  the  sides  of 
the  house  may  be  removed  and  the  whole 
thrown  open  to  air  and  ventilation.  Nor 
do  permanent  partitions  cut  up  the  inte¬ 
rior;  paper  screens,  sliding  in  grooves, 
divide  the  space  according  to  the  number 
of  rooms  required.  A  particular  charm 
is  lent  to  these  delicate  structures  by 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 83 

leaving  the  woodwork,  within  as  well  as 
without,  unpainted.  This  elegance  and 
simplicity  of  trimming,  revealing  the  ex¬ 
quisite  grain  of  the  camphor-tree,  which 
resembles  fine  watered  silk,  wins  the  ad¬ 
miration  of  every  stranger. 

The  palaces  of  the  court  nobles  re¬ 
semble  the  domestic  dwellings  in  con¬ 
struction,  save  that  they  contain  more 
permanent  walls,  and  are  usually  sur¬ 
mounted  by  roofs  of  a  more  elaborate 
type.  As  regards  decoration,  they  have 
borrowed  from  the  resources  of  ecclesias¬ 
tical  architecture,  and  many  beautiful 
forms  of  ornaments,  such  as  adorn  the 
temples,  have  found  their  way  into  the 
abodes  of  the  nobility.  Their  residences 
were  generally  surrounded  by  extensive 
landscape  gardens,  such  as  Lafcadio 
Hearn  has  so  lovingly  described  in  his 
“Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan.” 

The  palaces  of  the  Mikado  are  natu- 


184 


JAPANESE  ART 


rally  the  most  elaborate  structures  of  this 
kind.  In  primitive  times  his  palace  was 
said  to  be  but  little  superior  to  that  of  the 
humblest  villager  —  the  emperor,  being 
of  divine  origin,  needed  no  earthly  pomp 
to  give  him  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  his 
subjects.  In  later  years  the  examples  of 
luxurious  living  set  by  the  Shoguns  have 
had  their  effect,  so  that,  at  the  present 
day,  the  Mikado’s  palaces  are  quite  elab¬ 
orate  in  extent  and  decoration. 

In  the  old  palaces  the  screens  were 
painted  or  embroidered  with  exquisite 
copies  of  the  old  masters.  The  friezes 
are  often  gems  of  glyptic  art,  and  occa¬ 
sionally,  as  in  the  Nijo  palace,  by  the  hand 
of  Hidari  Zingaro,  while  the  ceilings  are 
coffered  in  black  lacquer  with  gold  en¬ 
richments. 

In  the  new  palace  at  Tokyo,  the  sliding 
screens  are  of  plate  glass,  a  rather  expen¬ 
sive  luxury  in  a  land  so  prone  to  earth- 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 85 

quakes,  and  the  furniture,  having  been 
manufactured  in  Germany,  seems  out  of 
place  in  its  Eastern  home. 

Some  of  the  old  feudal  castles,  several 
of  which  still  exist  in  a  state  of  perfect 
preservation,  were  proportioned  in  a  way 
to  reveal  a  certain  grandeur  and  dignity 
of  appearance.  They  are  lofty,  dignified 
wooden  structures.  Each  story  is  placed 
a  little  within  the  one  below,  the  project¬ 
ing  portion  being  roofed  with  tiles  (a  fash¬ 
ion  of  the  eleventh  century).  The  effect 
of  height  is  increased  by  a  stone  embank¬ 
ment,  which  in  mediaeval  times  afforded 
sufficient  protection  against  civil  disturb¬ 
ances.  The  facing  of  these  embankments 
is  fashioned  out  of  immense  rocks,  fitted 
without  cement,  and  the  corners  have  a 
parabolic  curve  outward,  which  lends  an 
air  of  Norman  solidity  to  the  whole. 
Most  of  the  castles  now  extant  date  from 
the  sixteenth  century,  though  some  have 


JAPANESE  ART 


1 86 

been  completed  at  a  later  date,  such  as 
the  castle  of  Nagoya,  built  about  1610  by 
twenty  feudal  lords,  and  held  to  be  the 
finest  example  of  its  kind  in  Japan. 

Also  the  Yashiki,  or  “spread -out¬ 
houses,” —  the  former  homes  of  the  terri¬ 
torial  nobility,  now  fast  disappearing,  or 
turned  into  shops,  —  are  rather  pictur¬ 
esque  constructions.  They  are  said  to 
have  been  an  evolution  from  the  military 
encampments  of  former  days,  in  which 
the  general’s  pavilion  stood  high  among 
the  other  tents.  The  Yashiki  was  a  collec¬ 
tion  of  buildings,  a  square  lined  with  bar¬ 
racks  for  the  soldiery,  while  the  residence 
of  the  daimyo,  surrounded  by  spacious 
gardens,  rose  in  the  middle.  The  whole 
was  girt  by  a  broad,  deep  moat,  and  a 
mud-plastered  wall,  roofed  with  tiles  and 
set  high  upon  a  stone  embankment.  The 
residence  differed  but  little  from  the  cas¬ 
tles  just  described,  but  the  barracks  had 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 87 

a  certain  individuality  of  their  own.  They 
consist  of  long  rows  of  two-story  build¬ 
ings,  with  projecting  eaves,  barred  win¬ 
dows,  hanging  bays,  tiled  roofs,  and  stone 
foundations,  frequently  forming  a  part  of 
the  enclosing  wall. 

The  roof  is  always  the  most  artistic 
and  characteristic  feature  of  Japanese 
buildings.  With  its  broad  overhanging 
eaves,  festooned  in  the  centre  and  bent 
upward  and  backward  at  the  corners, 
thereby  disclosing  a  vision  of  complicated 
corbelling,  it  lends  a  peculiar,  picturesque 
charm  to  any  structure. 

It  is  difficult  to  divide  the  ecclesiastical 
buildings  conscientiously  into  distinct 
classes,  as  is  generally  done.  The  simple 
style  of  Shinto  temples,  developed  from 
the  primeval  huts  of  the  Ainos,  and  the 
most  elaborate  style  of  the  Buddhist  tem¬ 
ples,  an  offshoot  of  Korean  architecture, 
have  constantly  influenced  and  affected 


JAPANESE  ART 


1 88 

each  other.  The  fusion  of  the  Buddhist 
religion  with  the  Shinto  cult,  which  began 
in  552,  when  Buddhism  was  first  intro¬ 
duced  into  the  country,  also  amalgamated 
the  architecture  of  Burma,  to  a  certain 
extent,  with  the  Japanese  native  style. 

The  purest  specimens  of  Shinto  tem¬ 
ples  are  built  of  plain  white  pine,  sur¬ 
mounted  by  thatched  roofs.  In  them  the 
coarse  matting,  forming  the  sides  of  the 
Aino  hut,  have  given  place  to  ordinary 
boarding,  the  earthen  floor  to  a  raised 
wooden  one  surrounded  by  a  veranda,  and 
the  rough  logs  used  anciently  as  weights 
upon  the  munaosae  or  “  roof-presser  ”  (a 
beam  to  hold  the  thatch  in  place)  are 
represented  by  cigar-shaped  pieces  of 
timber  neatly  turned.  At  either  end  of 
the  roof,  the  rafters  project  so  as  to  form 
a  letter  X  above  the  ridge-pole.  This 
treatment  always  stamps  a  temple  as  be¬ 
longing  to  the  Shinto  faith,  a  fact  further 


Torii, 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 89 

emphasized  by  the  presence  of  the  torn , 
the  Japanese  form  of  propylaea,  invariably 
standing  before  temple  enclosures  devoted 
to  the  Shinto  cult.  An  amazing  plainness 
is  the  attribute  of  most  Shinto  shrines. 
There  are  no  idols,  and  the  wooden  walls 
remain  untouched  by  the  painter’s  brush 
or  the  lacquerer’s  devices.  Its  sole  orna¬ 
ments  are  the  symbolical  mirror,  “  the 
emblem  of  the  sun,”  transparent  crystal 
globes,  and  “prayers,”  notched  strips  of 
paper  hung  upon  wands. 

Since  1868,  when  Shintoism  was  rein¬ 
stalled  as  the  state  religion,  a  certain 
effort  at  enrichment  has  been  essayed,  but 
the  shrines  of  Ize  and  Izumo  still  stand  as 
the  most  complete  examples  of  the  origi¬ 
nal  native  style. 

In  the  Buddhist  temples,  the  marvel¬ 
lous  instinct  of  the  Japanese  for  grouping 
and  colour  has  had  full  sway.  The  first 
building  in  a  Buddhist  shrine  which 


JAPANESE  ART 


190 

asserts  itself  is  the  “  Satnmon,”  or  two- 
storied  gateway,  resembling  in  the  distri¬ 
bution  of  its  upper  story  the  “gates  of 
extensive  wisdom,”  etc.,  in  the  noble 
official  residences  of  Korea.  The  framing 
of  the  lower  story ,  however,  is  arranged  so 
as  to  form  niches,  in  which  stand  the 
God  of  Thunder  and  the  Wind  deity,  the 
face  of  one  being  always  painted  a  livid 
green,  that  of  the  other  a  deep  vermilion, 
as  though  congested. 

Passing  through  the  sammon  the  vis¬ 
itor  or  worshipper  finds  himself  in  the 
first  terraced  court,  only  to  encounter 
another  gateway,  more  imposing  than  the 
last,  leading  to  a  second  court,  and  so  on 
to  a  third,  until  by  traversing  terrace  after 
terrace  he  at  last  reaches  the  oratory  and 
chapel.  These  courtyards  are  usually 
filled  with  all  the  concomitant  buildings 
of  the  Buddhist  cult,  as  well  as  with  a 
number  of  bronze  and  stone  lanterns  pre- 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  191 


sented  by  the  daimyos  in  token  of  re¬ 
pentance  for  past  sins.  Belfries,  priests’ 
apartments,  a  rinzo,  or  revolving  library,  a 
kitchen,  a  treasure-house,  a  pavilion  con¬ 
taining  the  holy  water  cistern,  and  pago¬ 
das  rise  on  either  hand  throughout,  all 
crowned  with  festooned  roofs,  beautifully 
carved  and  lacquered,  embellished  with 
statuary,  and  covered  with  ornaments 
in  wood,  bronze,  and  ivory,  representing 
gods,  dragons,  birds,  lions,  tapers,  uni¬ 
corns,  elephants,  tigers,  flowers,  and 
plants,  in  fact,  every  symbol  known  to 
the  Japanese,  whether  original,  or  bor¬ 
rowed  from  the  Chinese  or  Koreans. 

Among  the  most  imposing  of  these  sup¬ 
plementary  buildings  are  the  pagodas, 
which  are  invariably  square,  like  those  of 
Korea. 

They  are  usually  divided  into  five  or 
seven  stories,  each  set  a  little  within  the 
one  below,  and  girt  about  with  balconies 


192 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  overhanging  eaves  as  in  China.  The 
whole  is  usually  lacquered  in  dull  red,  save 
the  lowest  story,  on  which  a  bewildering 
mass  of  painted  carvings  distracts  the  eye, 
and  high  above  all  a  twisted  spire  of 
bronze  forms  the  culmination. 

One  longs  to  know  something  of  the 
life  of  the  men  who  erected  all  of  these 
large  and  magnificent  structures.  And 
yet  we  know  little  more  than  nothing. 
The  temple  archives  are  silent.  The 
records  of  the  birth  and  death  of  their 
great  architects,  nay,  even  their  very 
names,  are  often  wanting. 

All  I  can  still  add  is  a  chronological 
list  as  to  when  the  principal  buildings  and 
temples  were  constructed.  I  am  indebted 
to  Louis  Gonse,  the  French  expert,  for 
this  valuable  information. 

Seventh  century.  The  palace  of  Assa- 
kura  at  Siga,  and  the  temple  of  Horiuyi 
at  Nara. 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 93 

Eighth  century.  The  castle  of  Taga 
(of  which  the  ruins  are  still  existing)  and 
the  gateway  and  sanctuary  of  the  Dai- 
Butsu  temple  at  Nara. 

Ninth  century.  The  Gosho  palace  at 
Kyoto,  and  the  temple  of  Obaku  at  Oyi. 

Twelfth  century.  The  temples  and  the 
pagoda  of  Kamakura. 

Thirteenth  century.  The  temple  of 
Tokufudji  at  Kyoto. 

Fifteenth  century.  The  palace  and 
pavilion  of  Kinkakudi  at  Kyoto,  and  a 
large  number  of  other  temples  and  pala¬ 
tial  residences. 

Sixteenth  century.  The  castle  of  Osaka, 
the  Himkahu  palace,  and  the  Shinto  tem¬ 
ple  at  Kyoto. 

Seventeenth  century.  The  great  Shinto 
temple  at  Nikko  and  the  Tchoin  temple 
at  Kyoto,  both  built  by  Hidari  Zingaro, 
and  the  five-story  pagodas  of  Nikko, 
Osaka,  and  Kyoto. 


194 


JAPANESE  ART 


We  possess  but  scant  information  re¬ 
garding  the  origin  of  Japanese  architec¬ 
ture.  Authentic  information  begins  with 
the  reign  of  Jimmu  Tenno,  who  ascended 
the  throne  in  660  b.  c.,  and  is  believed  to 
have  been  the  first  human  ruler  of  Nippon, 
which  had  before  that  been  governed  by 
Shinto  gods.  During  his  reign  an  impe¬ 
rial  palace  and  a  Shinto  temple  were 
built,  and  these  gave  the  mode  until  about 
201  a.  d.,  when  the  empress  dowager 
Yingo  Koto,  the  Semiramis  or  Catherine 
of  the  Far  East,  donned  male  attire  and 
conquered  Korea. 

From  that  time  on  Korea  became  the 
inspiration  of  Japanese  builders.  The 
details  of  Korean  architecture  show  much 
affinity  with  the  Chinese,  which,  in  turn, 
had  been  derived  to  a  certain  extent  from 
Burma.  In  the  period  of  673-6S9,  under 
the  emperor  Temmu,  however,  the  impor¬ 
tation  ceased,  and  assimilation  set  in. 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 95 

Architectural  features  which  had  entered 
the  country  uncompromisingly  Chinese, 
Korean,  or  Indian  in  character,  lost  their 
original  appearance,  and  being  assimilated, 
took  on  a  refinement  and  elegance  quite 
new  and  individual.  A  steady  advance¬ 
ment  toward  purity  of  style  followed. 
Colour  became  one  of  the  leading  charac¬ 
teristics.  Buildings  were  conceived  as 
colour  schemes,  in  emerald  and  silver, 
with  a  dash  of  crimson,  or  in  yellowish 
gray  and  black,  with  a  dark  reddish 
bronze  as  accentuation.  The  love  for 
highly  finished  detail  was  carried  to  the 
extreme,  and  the  ornamentation,  steadily 
increasing  in  picturesque  effect,  almost 
swallowed  up  the  form. 

This  continued  with  slight  modifications 
until  1616,  when  the  climax  was  reached 
in  the  temple  of  Shiba,  and  the  Tokugawa 
at  Nikko,  the  masterpieces  of  the  Japan¬ 
ese  builder’s  art. 


196 


JAPANESE  ART 


Such,  in  brief,  is  the  architecture  of 
Nippon.  From  the  purely  classic  point 
of  view,  in  which  form  and  outline  play  so 
important  a  part,  it  may  not  rank  very 
high  in  the  scale ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Oriental  it  meets  all  requirements. 

The  roofs  are  certainly  as  graceful  in 
curve  and  sweep  as  any  in  the  world,  and, 
as  regards  picturesqueness,  colour  effects, 
and  external  enrichment,  the  temples  of 
Shiba  and  Nikko  stand  preeminent 
throughout  the  East. 

The  modern  railway  stations,  hotels, 
club-houses,  and  government  buildings, 
erected  since  1868,  which  affect  an  amal¬ 
gamation  of  native  and  foreign  ornaments 
and  forms,  are  architecturally  uninterest¬ 
ing.  The  land  has  lost  its  ancient  archi¬ 
tectural  language,  and  foreign  jargons 
have,  temporarily  at  least,  taken  the  place 
of  the  natural  speech. 

Sculpture,  in  our  Western  sense,  is 


Pagoda. 


\ 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 9 7 

comparatively  unknown  in  Japan.  It 
never  approaches  the  calm,  stately  per¬ 
fection  of  Greek,  or  even  Egyptian,  art, 
except  it  were  in  the  colossal  statues  of 
Buddha,  and  other  colossal  figures  carved 
in  wood,  like  the  Deva  Kings,  the  origi¬ 
nal  horses  and  temple  guardians  at  Nara. 
With  the  exception  of  the  Dai-Butsu  of 
Kamakura,  which  will  be  discussed  later 
on,  they  are,  to  me,  not  even  as  imposing 
as  the  giant  statues  of  camels  and  manda¬ 
rins  in  the  avenue  leading  to  the  sepulchre 
of  Ming,  near  Peking. 

The  Daishi  family  in  the  eighth  and 
ninth  centuries  were  the  authors  of  many 
of  these  Dai-Butsus.  They  were  the  real 
sculptors  of  Japan.  In  later  centuries 
miniature  carving  became  more  and  more 
the  fashion. 

Even  for  a  native  it  is  difficult  to  form 
an  accurate  estimate  of  those  huge  stand¬ 
ing  figures  of  gods  and  goddesses,  of  the 


198 


JAPANESE  ART 


seven  deities  of  happiness  and  other  sym¬ 
bolical  and  mythological  characters.  The 
majority  of  them  are  hidden  in  temples, 
in  high  and  narrow  sanctuaries,  lighted 
only  from  a  little  entrance.  The  figures, 
often  thirty  feet  high,  loom,  all  golden, 
into  the  darkness,  which  is  too  great  to 
judge  of  form,  whether  it  be  art  or  not. 
The  only  impression  one  receives,  is  a 
“  smile  of  gold  far  above  our  head  ”  in  the 
obscurity  of  the  roof. 

Lafcadio  Hearn  describes  one  of  those 
colossal  golden  images  in  his  “  Pilgrimage 
to  Enoshima.” 

“  I  follow  the  old  priest  cautiously, 
discerning  nothing  whatever  but  the 
flicker  of  the  lantern ;  then  we  halt  be¬ 
fore  something  which  gleams.  A  moment, 
and  my  eyes,  becoming  more  accustomed 
to  the  darkness,  begin  to  distinguish  out¬ 
lines  ;  the  gleaming  object  defines  itself 
gradually  as  a  foot,  an  immense  golden 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  1 99 

foot,  and  I  perceive  the  hem  of  a  golden 
robe  undulating  over  the  instep.  Now 
the  other  foot  appears ;  the  figure  is  cer¬ 
tainly  standing.  I  can  perceive  that  we 
are  in  a  narrow,  but  very  lofty,  chamber, 
and  that  out  of  some  mysterious  blackness 
overhead,  ropes  are  dangling  down  into 
the  circle  of  lantern  light,  illuminating  the 
golden  feet.  The  priest  lights  two  more 
lanterns,  and  suspends  them  upon  hooks 
attached  to  a  pair  of  pendent  ropes  about 
a  yard  apart.  Then  he  pulls  up  both  to¬ 
gether  slowly.  More  of  the  golden  robe 
is  revealed  as  the  lanterns  ascend,  swing¬ 
ing  on  their  way ;  then  the  outlines  of  two 
mighty  knees ;  then  the  curving  of  col¬ 
umnar  thighs  under  chiselled  drapery, 
and,  as  with  the  still  waving  ascent  of 
the  lanterns,  the  golden  vision  towers 
ever  higher  through  the  gloom,  expecta¬ 
tion  intensifies.  There  is  no  sound  but 
the  sound  of  the  invisible  pulleys  over- 


200 


JAPANESE  ART 


head,  which  squeak  like  bats.  Now  above 
the  golden  circle  the  suggestion  of  a 
bosom.  Then  the  gleaming  of  a  golden 
hand  uplifted  in  benediction.  Then  an¬ 
other  golden  hand  holding  a  lotus.  And 
at  last  a  face,  golden,  smiling,  with  eternal 
youth  and  infinite  tenderness,  the  face  of 
Kwannon. 

“  Revealed  thus  out  of  the  consecrated 
darkness,  this  ideal  of  divine  femininity  — 
creation  of  a  forgotten  art  and  time  —  is 
more  than  impressive.  I  can  scarcely 
define  the  emotion  which  it  produces  as 
admiration ;  it  is  rather  reverence.  But 
the  lanterns,  which  paused  awhile  at  the 
level  of  the  beautiful  face,  now  ascend  still 
higher.  And  lo  !  the  tiara  of  divinity  ap¬ 
pears,  with  strangest  symbolism.  It  is 
a  pyramid  of  heads,  of  faces,  —  charming 
faces  of  maidens,  —  miniature  faces  of 
Kwannon  herself.” 

To  the  student,  Japanese  sculpture 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  201 


offers  a  striking  and  rather  unexpected 
peculiarity.  In  all  other  branches  of  art 
the  Japanese  carefully  avoids  giving  us  an 
illusion  of  the  materiality  of  things ;  in 
sculpture  he  makes  it  the  main  object. 
He  not  only  colours  his  statues  in  a  most 
lifelike  manner  (carved  and  painted  wood 
is  said  to  be  the  commencement  of  all 
artistic  productions  in  Japan),  but  at  times 
strives  to  give  to  them,  as  to  waxwork, 
the  actual  appearance  of  reality,  by  intro¬ 
ducing  glass  eyes,  and  real  hair. 

Very  characteristic  of  Japanese  sculp¬ 
ture  in  this  respect  are  the  images  of 
foxes,  many  dating  back  to  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  century,  in  grayish  green  stone, 
which  the  modern  tourist  encounters  so 
frequently  before  Shinto  shrines  and  in 
the  cemeteries.  The  fox  was  worshipped 
as  the  deity  of  rice,  and  has  always  been 
a  favourite  subject  with  the  artists.  The 
stone  carving  is  very  primitive,  but  the 


202 


JAPANESE  ART 


form  of  the  animals  of  a  rare  elegance,  as 
graceful  as  that  of  greyhounds.  They 
have  eyes  of  green  or  gray  crystal  quartz, 
and  are  mostly  covered  with  the  moss  of 
centuries.  They  create  a  strange  impres¬ 
sion  of  mythological  conceptions ;  they 
have  something  ghostly  about  them ;  and 
each  image  has  an  individuality  of  its 
own.  Some  of  them  laugh  ironically,  or 
slyly  wink  their  eyes ;  others  watch  with 
cocked-up  ears ;  while  others  again  sleep 
with  their  mouths  agape. 

The  skill  of  the  Chinese  painter  in 
faithfully  reproducing  the  plumage  of 
birds,  the  wings  of  butterflies,  the  mark¬ 
ing  of  shells,  has  never  appealed  to  the 
Japanese  painter.  Why  it  should  have  in¬ 
spired  the  sculptor  is  one  of  those  curious 
problems  which  the  art  critic  has  to  solve. 

In  looking  at  a  statue  the  optical  con¬ 
sciousness  cannot  readily  be  divided. 
Either  it  attracts  to  form  or  it  attracts 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  203 

to  hue,  rarely  and  imperfectly  to  both  to¬ 
gether.  And  sculpture  should  appeal  to 
form,  as  revealed  by  flowing  lines  and 
delicate  modelling.  The  Japanese,  al¬ 
ways  deficient  in  his  appreciation  of  light 
and  shade,  apparently  had  no  sense  for 
the  statuesque ;  to  him  form  is  merely  a 
curved  surface,  void  of  every  emotional 
feeling.  He  introduces  colour  to  distract 
attention  from  the  monotony  of  form,  and, 
unconsciously,  paints  a  painting  in  relief. 

Form  alone  is  no  ideal  to  him.  Even 
in  his  okimonos,  i.  e.,  ivory  statuettes,  it 
is  subordinated  to  the  idea.  He  does  not 
share  our  opinion  that  the  body  is  most 
beautiful  when  naked.  He  considers  a 
female  figure  in  holiday  attire  more  lovely 
than  without  drapery. 

This  is  exactly  the  reason  why  sculp¬ 
ture  has  remained  in  its  incipiency.  The 
Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  has  produced  no 
Donatello  or  Luca  della  Robbia. 


204 


JAPANESE  ART 


Hidari  Zingaro  (seventeenth  century), 
it  is  true,  was  a  highly  interesting  com¬ 
bination  of  architect,  carpenter,  and  wood- 
carver,  and  his  friezes  of  carved  flowers 
and  birds  are  unsurpassed  in  delicacy  of 
execution.  He  was  an  architectural  sculp¬ 
tor  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 

Also  the  works  in  hammered  bronze  of 
his  contemporary,  Hiroshima,  whose  co¬ 
lossal  “  sleeping  cat  ”  is  even  to  this  day 
known  to  every  child,  I  rank  very  high 
artistically,  but  I  would  not  take  it  upon 
myself  to  call  him  a  sculptor,  any  more 
than  I  would  apply  the  term  to  the  silver 
and  goldsmiths  of  the  middle  ages. 

I  gladly  acknowledge  that  Seimen  has 
made  vases  and  incense-burners  which 
no  American  would  ever  dream  of.  Yet 
I  would  not  dare  compare  the  turtles  of 
Seimen,  the  quails  of  Kamejo,  the  birds 
of  Chokichi  and  the  dragons  of  Taoun 
(four  great  metal-workers  of  the  eigh- 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  205 

teenth  century)  to  Cellini’s  work,  unfit  as 
they  were  for  jewelry. 

It  is  different  with  Ogawa  Ritsuo  (seven¬ 
teenth.  century),  a  samurai,  who,  after  dis¬ 
tinguishing  himself  as  a  soldier,  renounced 
the  career  of  arms  to  become  an  art 
workman,  equally  successful  in  statuettes 
and  lacquer  work. 

He  carved  in  wood  en  miniature ,  but 
all  his  work  had  the  effect  of  bigness,  of 
the  strength  and  grandeur  of  the  antique 
models  of  the  eleventh  century  that  in¬ 
fluenced  him.  His  portrait  statues  are 
lifelike,  full  of  dignity  and  grace,  revealing 
a  careful  and  fairly  truthful  study  of 
drapery.  His  strange  and  fantastic  types, 
like  the  Shoki,  the  legendary  persecutor 
of  the  daimyos,  manifest  a  wonderful 
vigour  and  spontaneity  of  expression. 
The  outlines  are  always  exaggerated,  but 
the  modelling  is  very  skilful  and  almost 
accurate.  He  never  preserved  the  origi- 


206 


JAPANESE  ART 


nal  colour  of  wood,  but  invariably  coloured 
face  and  drapery;  the  latter  generally 
brown,  with  a  few  delicate  touches  of 
gold. 

But  even  Ritsuo  is  not  a  sculptor  as 
we  understand  the  word.  According  to 
Western  aesthetics  a  piece  of  sculpture 
must  be  “statuesque.”  It  must  be  a 
vigorous  self-abnegation  of  all  unneces¬ 
sary  embellishment.  Japanese  sculpture 
is  almost  always  ornamental  and  pictur¬ 
esque.  (Who  but  a  Japanese  would  think 
of  carving  a  moonlit  scene  ?) 

Somewhere  the  dividing  line  must  be 
drawn,  and  I  think  I  am  justified  in  doing 
as  I  have  done.  A  sleeping  cat  necessa¬ 
rily  does  not  rank  as  high,  as  a  work  of 
art,  as  an  Apollo  of  Belvedere.  And  it 
is  very  annoying  to  hear  the  statement 
that  the  Japanese  have  another  standard 
of  art  than  ours  continually  repeated.  Of 
course,  they  have  another  standard  of 


Dai-Butsu,  Asakasa. 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  207 

art,  and  their  work  is,  in  a  certain  way, 
just  as  great  as  ours.  Many  of  their  oki- 
monos  and  netsukes,  as  the  various  little 
ivory  ornaments  are  called,  replete  with 
life  and  humour,  reveal  more  true  art 
than  the  “  ambitious  ”  work  of  our  average 
sculptors.  But  this  is  not  a  discussion 
about  merit,  but  merely  about  terms. 
Both  Donatello  as  well  as  Hiroshima  are 
great  artists,  the  only  difference  being 
that  Donatello  is  a  sculptor  and  Hiro¬ 
shima  an  artisan. 

Let  us  now  return  to  those  giant 
statues,  who,  seated  on  lotus  flowers,  with 
a  serene  smile  frozen  on  their  lips,  contem¬ 
plate  the  vanity  of  all  discussions,  of  all 
human  endeavours  and  aspirations,  of 
existence  itself. 

The  most  famous  one  is  at  Kamakura, 
completed  in  1252.  Others  can  be  found 
at  Nara,  Asakasa,  and  other  places.  The 
height  of  the  Kamakura  idol  is  forty-nine 


208 


JAPANESE  ART 


feet  seven  inches,  circumference  ninety- 
seven  feet,  length  of  face  eight  feet  five 
inches,  width  of  mouth  three  feet  two 
inches,  and  there  are  said  to  be  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  thirty  curls  upon  the  head,  each 
of  which  is  nine  inches  long. 

It  is  made  of  sheets  of  upright  layers  of 
bronze,  brazed  together  and  finished  with 
file  work.  They  are,  of  course,  hollow, 
and  a  ladder  enables  the  pilgrim  to  ascend 
into  the  interior  of  the  colossus,  as  high 
as  the  shoulders,  in  which,  generally,  two 
little  windows  command  a  wide  prospect 
of  the  surrounding  grounds. 

The  Dai-Butsu  of  Nara  is  higher  than 
that  of  Kamakura,  and  totally  dissimilar 
to  the  most  of  the  other  ones.  The  black 
face,  with  its  distended  nostrils  and  puffed 
cheeks,  suggests  rather  an  African  cast  of 
countenance;  but  this  may  be  owing  to 
departures  from  the  original  model 
while  undergoing  repairs,  for  we  are  told 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  20g 

that  between  the  year  750,  when  the 
image  was  first  completed,  and  1570,  the 
head  was  three  times  burnt  off  and  fell  to 
the  ground.  While  the  Kamakura  figure 
shows  both  hands  resting  upon  the  knees, 
that  of  Nara  has  the  right  arm  extended 
upward,  with  the  palm  of  the  hand  to  the 
front. 

On  the  right  and  left  of  the  Dai-Butsu 
are  images  nearly  eighteen  feet  high,  built 
in  modern  times,  and  placed  in  their  pres¬ 
ent  positions,  doubtless,  with  the  shrewd 
idea  that  their  known  height,  yet  diminu¬ 
tive  appearance  in  contrast  with  the  cen¬ 
tral  figure,  would  lend  enormity  to  the 
main  attraction. 

Although  most  of  the  Dai-Butsus  are 
centuries  old,  there  are  also  some  of  more 
recent  date,  notably  the  Dai-Butsu  of 
Kyoto,  built  by  Hideyary  in  1800.  It  is 
constructed  entirely  of  wood,  and  nearly 
sixty  feet  high.  As  a  carving  it  is  mam- 


2  IO 


JAPANESE  ART 


moth,  but  the  pleasant  smile  of  the  Kama¬ 
kura  idol  is  missing,  and  as  a  work  of  art 
it  is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  older 
ones. 

The  Dai-Butsus  are  a  great  attraction 
to  the  tourists.  Every  traveller  who  can 
wield  the  pen  has  written  his  appreciation 
about  them,  particularly  of  the  wonderful 
giant  figure  of  Kamakura. 

Chamberlain  says: 

“No  other  gives  such  an  impression  of 
majesty,  or  so  truly  symbolizes  the  central 
idea  of  Buddhism,  the  intellectual  calm 
which  comes  of  perfected  knowledge  and 
the  subjugation  of  all  passion.” 

William  Elliot  Griffis,  one  of  our  fore¬ 
most  authorities  on  Japanese  art,  de¬ 
scribed  the  statue  with  the  following 
enthusiastic  words : 

“  One  could  scarcely  imagine  a  purer 
interpretation  of  the  calm  repose  of  Nir¬ 
vana  than  that  of  the  work  of  the  metal- 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  21  I 


lurgist,  Ono.  Cast  six  centuries  ago,  and 
surviving  the  destruction  by  tidal  waves 
of  the  massive  temples  reared  to  enclose 
it,  the  figure  stands  out  under  the  blue 
canopy  of  the  sky,  in  sunshine  and  cloud, 
at  dawn-light  and  even-glow,  sublime  in 
conception  and  superb  in  achievement.” 

Lafcadio  Hearn,  who  is  at  times  a 
poet  as  much  as  he  is  an  authority,  has 
given  us  a  charming  account  of  the  Kama¬ 
kura  idol,  which  deserves  to  be  quoted  in 
full: 

“You  do  not  see  the  Dai-Butsu  as  you 
enter  the  grounds  of  the  long  vanished 
temple,  and  proceed  along  a  paved  path 
across  stretches  of  lawn ;  great  trees  hide 
him.  But  very  suddenly,  at  a  turn,  he 
comes  into  full  view,  and  you  start!  No 
matter  how  many  photographs  of  the  co¬ 
lossus  you  may  have  already  seen,  this 
first  vision  of  the  reality  is  an  astonish¬ 
ment.  Then  you  imagine  that  you  are 


2  I  2 


JAPANESE  ART 


already  too  near,  though  the  image  is  at 
least  one  hundred  yards  away.  As  for 
me,  I  retire  at  once  thirty  or  forty  yards 
back  to  get  a  better  view,  and  the  jin- 
rikisha  man  runs  after  me,  laughing  and 
gesticulating,  thinking  that  I  imagine  the 
image  alive,  and  am  afraid  of  it. 

“  But  even  were  the  shape  alive  none 
could  be  afraid  of  it.  The  gentleness,  the 
dreamy  passionlessness  of  these  features 
—  the  immense  repose  of  the  whole  fig¬ 
ure —  are  full  of  beauty  and  charm.  And, 
contrary  to  all  expectation,  the  nearer  you 
approach  the  giant  Buddha,  the  greater 
the  charm  becomes.  You  look  up  into 
the  solemnly  beautiful  face,  —  into  the 
half  closed  eyes,  that  seem  to  watch  you 
through  their  eyelids  of  bronze  as  gently 
as  those  of  a  child ;  and  you  feel  that  the 
image  typifies  all  that  is  tender  and  sol¬ 
emn  in  the  soul  of  the  East.  Yet,  you 
feel  also  that  only  Japanese  thought  could 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  213 

have  created  it.  Its  beauty,  its  dignity, 
its  perfect  repose,  reflect  the  higher  life 
of  the  race  that  imagined  it,  and,  though 
inspired  doubtless  by  some  Indian  model, 
as  the  treatment  of  his  hair  and  various 
symbolic  marks  reveal,  the  art  is  Japanese. 

“  So  mighty  and  beautiful  is  the  work 
that  you  will  for  some  time  fail  to  notice 
the  magnificent  lotus  plants  of  bronze, 
fully  fifteen  feet  high,  planted  before  the 
figure  on  another  side  of  the  great  tripod 
in  which  incense  rods  are  burning.” 

The  Dai-Butsu  of  Kamakura  is  to  me 
an  embodiment  of  Old  Japan,  of  all  that 
is  noble  and  elevating  in  that  most  artistic 
of  all  races. 

Creeds  may  pass  and  reappear,  and  the 
race  itself  which  created  them  may  vanish  ; 
but  the  Dai-Butsu  will  never  cease  to 
smile  the  smile  which  has  been  upon  his 
lips  for  six  hundred  years.  How  peaceful 
life  seems  at  the  feet  of  the  great  tranquil 


214 


JAPANESE  ART 


figure ;  what  happiness  it  must  be  to  feel 
oneself  enfranchised,  to  be  no  longer 
conscious  of  the  flight  of  life,  of  the  inces¬ 
sant  fall  into  the  sad  past,  where  all  be¬ 
loved  objects  end,  to  conquer  time  as 
he  has  done,  whom  six  centuries  have 
left  untouched. 

Ah,  ye  ancient  ascetics,  gentle  dream¬ 
ers,  who  sought,  in  fashioning  these  idols 
centuries  ago,  to  weave  a  rainbow-col¬ 
oured  veil  over  dark  reality;  who  re¬ 
nounced  all  personal  desire,  to  shelter 
yourselves  like  your  creations  in  indiffer¬ 
ence  and  immobility;  with  what  a  smile 
of  disdainful  pity  would  you  regard  the 
Western  race,  which  now  introduces  the 
accomplishments  of  modern  civilization 
into  your  land.  They  do  not  believe  that 
the  world  is  a  dream,  these  materialists. 
They  rejoice  in  their  strength,  and  their 
will  obtains  gratification.  They  act,  they 
build  upon  the  world  which  they  believe 


ARCHITECTURE  AND  SCULPTURE  215 

to  be  of  rock,  and  you  believe  is  shifting 
sand.  What  would  you  say  of  these  ships, 
loaded  with  the  world’s  goods,  of  these 
trains  which  devour  the  distance,  as  if  it 
were  of  any  consequence  to  change  one’s 
place  to  another?  But,  above  all,  what 
would  you  say  of  the  meagre  philosophy 
which  vegetates  in  yonder  clime,  where 
nature  is  less  bountiful  than  in  your  isles 
of  flowers  ? 

This,  at  least,  is  certain.  You  would 
make  no  attempt  to  enlighten  them.  You 
would  leave  them  to  their  busy  goings 
and  comings,  to  their  pride  of  action; 
and,  slowly,  with  half-closed  eyes,  you 
would  return  with  delight  to  your  soli¬ 
tary  dreams,  to  your  tranquillizing  con¬ 
templation  of  the  eternal  and  motionless. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 

Pottery  and  Porcelain  —  Metals  and  Bronzes  — 
Lacquer  Ware 

N  the  libraries  of  some  collectors 
of  Japanese  curios,  one  can  find 
an  old  edition  of  the  “  Bampo  Sen 
Shio  ”  —  “complete  collection  of  ten  thou¬ 
sand  jewels,”  a  book  of  fourteen  volumes, 
printed  under  the  care  of  one  Aboshi  in 
1698.  It  is  a  priceless  possession,  as, 
aside  from  its  bibliographical  interests,  it 
falls  nothing  short  of  being  an  exhaustive 
resume  of  the  Japanese  industrial  arts. 

There  are  signatures  and  seals  of  cele¬ 
brated  painters;  of  kakemonos,  Chinese  or 
Japanese;  minute  descriptions  of  curious 

216 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


217 


and  ancient  coins  ;  of  blades  of  illustrious 
katanas ,  of  iron  kettles,  incense  vessels, 
flower  vases,  lacquers  and  fabrics ;  bio¬ 
graphical  data  of  celebrated  potters,  Chi¬ 
nese,  Korean,  or  native;  of  the  Gotos, 
celebrated  artificers  in  the  ornamentation 
of  sabres,  etc.  Two  entire  volumes  are 
devoted  to  vases  of  Japanese  earth,  de¬ 
signs  of  teapots,  old  and  new  cups,  and 
Chinese  vessels  of  the  Temmoku  epoch. 

The  information  is  accompanied  by 
sketches,  the  prices  are  indicated  in  gold- 
leaf,  the  dimensions  of  each  object  are 
given,  as  well  as  the  colour  and  the 
thickness  of  the  enamels.  It  is  a  remark¬ 
able  book,  written  for  a  public  consisting 
of  princes  and  millionaire  collectors.  To 
the  layman  it  is  bewildering ;  only  gradu¬ 
ally,  and  after  many  days  of  study,  he 
will  master  its  contents,  and  learn  to 
understand  and  appreciate  the  decorative 
charms  of  Japanese  art.  He  will  realize 


2  I  8 


JAPANESE  ART 


that  one  of  the  principal  merits  of  Japa¬ 
nese  art  lies  in  its  purely  decorative  and 
ideal  industrial  qualities,  that  they  present 
something  we  Westerners  do  not  possess, 
do  not  even  understand.  At  certain  peri¬ 
ods  in  the  Gothic  and  Rococo  we  touched 
it,  but  it  never  belonged  to  the  whole 
people,  as  in  Japan.  The  Japanese  have 
realized,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  Walt 
Whitman’s  dream  of  a  democratic  art,  for 
only  an  industrial  art  can  be  democratic. 

If  we  understood  Japanese  art,  we 
would  endeavour  to  live  in  different 
houses,  eat  from  different  dishes,  sleep 
in  different  beds,  change  our  entire 
surroundings,  and  discard  our  present 
costume. 

In  order  to  exemplify  the  difference,  let 
me  cite  two  instances:  We  all  know 
what  clumsy  things  our  alarm-clocks  are ; 
the  same  alarm-clock,  for  the  same  price, 
is  now  fabricated  in  Japan,  but  is  made  to 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


219 


represent  a  frog  holding  the  time-table. 
Then  again,  what  do  our  wives’  and 
sisters’  pin-cushions  generally  look  like: 
merely  little  square  cushions,  whereas  in 
Japan  they  take  the  form  of  a  beautiful 
flower,  or  a  fruit,  or  a  fish.  And  so 
everything,  from  their  buttons,  baskets, 
kitchen  utensils,  to  their  hand-made  em¬ 
broideries,  their  plates  of  Ninsei,  and  their 
Kenzan  and  Ritsuo  lacquer  trays,  is  a 
thing  of  beauty. 

I  must  confess  that  I  could  look  at  any 
ancient  vase  of  Arita  porcelain  for  a 
longer  time,  and  with  more  pleasure,  than 
at  the  majority  of  pictures  in  our  average 
exhibitions. 

Our  artists  have  not  the  same  oppor¬ 
tunities  as  the  Japanese.  The  Japanese 
artist-artisans  were,  until  lately,  the  in¬ 
heritors  of  trade  secrets,  the  resume ,  so 
to  say,  of  accumulated  experience,  extend¬ 
ing  over  centuries;  working  with  ample 


2  20 


JAPANESE  ART 


leisure  for  some  patron  who  gave  them 
a  generous,  permanent  income,  and  fur¬ 
nished  them  with  the  best  of  material, 
so  that  they  could  make  each  of  their 
productions  a  work  of  art. 

The  devotion  of  the  Japanese  artist  of 
the  old  regime  to  his  work,  and  his 
intense  appreciation  of  all  that  is  beauti¬ 
ful  and  of  much  that  is  grand,  were  alike 
unquestionable ;  and  generally  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  the  country,  throughout 
its  history,  greatly  favoured  the  growth 
of  these  dispositions.  Although  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  division  of  labour,  which  is 
nowadays  supposed  to  be  the  very  foun¬ 
dation  of  Western  civilization,  was  not 
unknown  among  them,  the  Western  artist- 
artisan  had  always  been  disposed  to  carry 
his  work  himself  through  every  one  of  its 
stages,  whether  his  task  were  that  of 
working  in  metal  or  lacquer,  of  preparing 
woven  fabrics,  or  of  pottery  in  any  of 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


221 


its  branches.  Each  workman  thus  looked 
on  his  work,  while  it  was  going  on,  as 
on  a  child  that  he  loved.  He  was  striving 
after  beauty  in  every  shape,  and  not  after 
money;  and  he  had  his  compensation  in 
a  way  which  would  cause  some  surprise 
to  the  modern  artist.  The  Japanese 
merchant  had  no  status  whatever,  though 
he  were  as  rich  as  Croesus.  Money  alone 
bought  no  position,  and  a  prince  was 
willing  to  spend  many  hours  with  an 
artist-artisan,  while  the  richest  merchant 
would  have  been  beneath  his  notice. 

Each  artisan  had  his  studio  and  work¬ 
shop  in  his  home,  and  was  assisted  by 
wife,  children,  pupils,  and  apprentices ;  or 
he  went  off  to  spend  weeks  or  months 
at  the  monasteries,  temples,  or  feudal 
mansions,  filling  orders  for  patrons.  The 
artist  himself  was  often  of  rank,  and  work¬ 
ing  for  an  exclusive  audience,  people  of 
much  leisure  and  refinement,  he  was  re- 


222 


JAPANESE  ART 


spected  (and  not  merely  tolerated  as  a 
curiosity,  as  it  is  the  fashion  in  our  polite 
society),  and  shared  the  luxurious  living  of 
the  nobility. 

And  there  was  never  any  lack  of  pa¬ 
trons.  Every  feudal  lord  was  a  connois¬ 
seur  and  collector,  and  frequently  also  the 
patron  of  some  temple  which  he  endowed 
with  works  of  art,  specially  ordered  for 
the  purpose. 

In  Japan  the  collector’s  craze  is  in  the 
very  air  and  soil.  Even  to-day  every 
Japanese  gentleman  has  his  collection  of 
some  kind,  and  the  scale  ranges  from  the 
most  superb  accumulations  of  netsukes, 
inros,  kakemonos,  crystal  balls,  lacquer 
ware,  armour,  swords,  porcelain,  faience, 
bronzes,  brocades,  embroideries,  costumes, 
pipes,  temple  accessories,  coins,  and  auto¬ 
graphs,  down  to  shells,  ferns,  flowers, 
plants,  rabbits,  goldfish,  Tosa  chickens, 
and  the  latter-day  postage-stamps. 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


223 


No  resident  of  Japan  can  escape  this 
mania  for  any  length  of  time ;  sooner  or 
later  he  is  sure  to  succumb  to  the  curio 
fever.  The  high  class  Japanese  artisan 
displays  such  an  infinite  variety  and  ver¬ 
satility  in  the  manufacture  of  any  article, 
that  nobody  can  resist  the  temptation  of 
becoming  a  specialist  of  one  kind  or 
another.  All  that  is  necessary  to  con¬ 
vince  oneself  of  the  truth  of  this  statement 
is  to  study  a  collection  of  teapots,  for 
instance,  such  as  Mrs.  Nellie  Hopper 
Howard,  the  artist,  and  Mme.  de  Struve, 
wife  of  the  Russian  minister  at  Tokyo 
(1870-1882),  have  accumulated. 

These  collections  contain  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  tiny  teapots,  each  differing  in 
form,  colour,  and  decoration.  There  are 
little  teapots,  shining  with  glaze  and  gild¬ 
ing,  moulded  into  every  possible  shape  — 
square,  triangular,  pentagonal,  hexagonal, 
round,  oval,  high,  low,  wide,  narrow,  flat, 


224 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  full  bodied  ;  squatty,  perch-like,  taper¬ 
ing,  top-heavy ;  with  long,  short,  wide, 
narrow,  pointed,  and  curling  spouts  and 
handles;  teapots  in  the  shape  of  boxes, 
baskets,  tubs,  buckets,  lanterns,  temples, 
houses,  boats,  melons,  pumpkins,  gourds, 
apples,  pears,  frogs,  turtles,  cats,  dogs, 
storks,  ducks,  cows,  fish,  flowers,  boys  and 
girls,  men  and  women.  No  metal  or  ma¬ 
terial  has  escaped  the  Japanese  workmen 
in  fashioning  teapots.  From  gold,  silver, 
iron,  bronze,  brass,  and  every  combination 
and  alloy  they  know,  from  clay  and  bis¬ 
cuit,  the  roots  of  trees,  joints  of  bamboo, 
from  body  of  sea-shells,  gourds,  and  even 
orange  rinds,  from  lacquer,  ivory,  and 
straw,  is  evolved  a  hollow  body,  with 
a  cover,  spout,  and  handle.  There  are 
large  bronze,  brass,  and  inlaid  iron  kettles, 
such  as  simmer  on  every  hibachi  in  the 
empire,  masterpieces  of  graceful  form 
and  pleasing  decoration,  as  well  as  tiny 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


225 


silver  pots,  that  by  strange  combinations, 
even  to  inlaying  with  iron,  have  become 
miracles  of  patient  and  minute  workman¬ 
ship. 

The  manufacture  of  ceramic  ware  has 
always  been  one  of  the  proudest  posses¬ 
sions  of  Japan.  The  productions  of 
Arita,  Kyoto,  Kaga,  Satsuma,  and  Owari, 
rank  with  the  best  of  European  manu¬ 
facturers.  Of  the  art  pottery  and  stone¬ 
ware  of  Satsuma  and  Arita  it  may  be  said 
that  nothing  better  in  the  material  has 
ever  been  produced. 

Japanese  pottery  impresses  by  the  free¬ 
dom  of  the  colouring  and  the  character  of 
the  design.  It  retains  the  forms  of  appar¬ 
ent  rusticity,  and  in  its  ornamentation 
adheres  to  the  academic  conceptions  of 
the  Chinese  masters.  It  is  futile  to  com¬ 
pare  it  with  the  classic  designs  and  sym¬ 
metrical  forms  of  Greek  and  Etruscan 
vases,  as  the  art  conception  of  the  Japa- 


226 


JAPANESE  ART 


nese  is  totally  different  from  that  of  the 
ancient  Greek,  who  regarded  symmetry 
and  correct  draughtsmanship  of  the  human 
form  as  their  principal  accomplishments. 
All  that  the  Japanese  have  in  common 
with  the  Greek  is  their  refinement  and 
reserve  power. 

The  principal  charm  of  Japanese  pot¬ 
tery  lies  in  its  colour.  Take,  for  instance, 
the  Wakai  collection  at  the  Paris  Expo¬ 
tion  of  1878.  It  was  made  according  to 
classical  traditions,  and  not  to  please 
European  tastes.  It  consisted  almost  ex¬ 
clusively  of  jars  with  flat  covers  of  ivory, 
and  cups  of  all  sizes  with  mouths  more  or 
less  widened,  and  whose  outlines  were 
indented  with  fantastically  arranged  finger¬ 
marks.  There  was  nothing  in  their  shape 
to  interest  the  Parisian  collectors,  but 
their  colouring  made  a  most  vivid  impres¬ 
sion.  It  revealed  the  deepest  black,  the 
most  brilliant  white,  with  innumerable 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


227 


other  tints,  from  cream  colour  to  wonder¬ 
ful  crimson.  The  colour  lends  a  beauty 
and  value  often  to  the  commonest  piece 
of  pottery. 

One  does  not  need  to  be  an  expert  to 
experience  the  pleasure  which  the  art  of 
the  potter  is  always  able  to  give  to  the 
sensitive  mind.  The  connoisseur  is  apt 
to  forget  the  beauty  of  the  object  in  his 
hand,  in  his  ardour  to  determine  its  right¬ 
ful  data,  maker,  and  place  of  production, 
and  to  identify  it  beyond  doubt,  either  by 
figures,  marks,  or  descriptions.  I  have 
never  come  in  contact  with  Japanese  con¬ 
noisseurs,  or  spent  days  poring  over  the 
treasures  in  some  musty  kura.  I  have 
never  sat  down  with  the  amiable  Rokubei, 
the  dignified  Dohachi,  the  good-natured 
Yeiraku,  and  never  had  the  opportunity 
of  gathering  words  of  wisdom  from  the 
lips  of  Kohitsu,  Machida,  Tanemura, 
Maida,  Ninagawa,  and  other  experts. 


228 


JAPANESE  ART 


I  would  consider  such  experiences 
rather  a  hindrance  to  the  proper  passing 
of  a  correct  judgment,  for  art  appreciation 
is,  after  all,  a  matter  of  feeling. 

In  my  opinion,  —  which  may  elicit  a 
disdainful  shrug  of  the  shoulders  from  the 
experts,  —  Japanese  pottery  reached  its 
highest  perfection  in  those  simple  rugged 
forms,  whose  glaze,  containing  very  much 
lead,  is  without  lustre,  and  whose  colour 
resembles  charcoal,  like  the  Showo-Shiga- 
riki  wares  of  the  latter  part  of  the  six¬ 
teenth  century.  Not  dazzling  at  the  first 
glance,  they  reveal  a  charm,  at  closer 
scrutiny,  that  is  something  more  than 
elegance.  Through  their  black  complex¬ 
ion,  covered  with  a  dull  lead  glaze  without 
light,  one  discerns  a  shimmer  of  refine¬ 
ment  which  is  strong  enough  to  despise 
all  adjectives.  These  pieces  of  pottery 
seem  to  have  a  soul-life  of  their  own, 
and  by  a  curious  association  of  thought 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


229 


they  invariably  conjure  up  before  me  a 
wild  samurai  in  black  lacquer  armour. 
The  careless  originality  and  vigorous 
simplicity  of  their  shapes  laugh,  in  their 
superiority,  proudly  without  conceit,  at 
all  the  faultless  curves  and  studied  graces 
of  the  Ming  Blue. 

Chosuke,  whose  magic  manipulation  of 
clay  and  fire  created  this  ware,  allowed 
only  two  hundred  pieces  to  go  forth  into 
the  world  “  to  tantalize  the  critical  judg¬ 
ment  of  posterity.” 

The  Japanese  became  potters  by  the 
peculiar  nature  of  their  environment. 
The  islands,  being  mountainous,  are  rich 
in  watercourses,  which  carry  with  them 
great  quantities  of  sand,  mixed  with  clay. 
Thus  the  nation  has  been  furnished  by 
nature  with  the  numberless  varieties  of 
paste  which  are  essential  for  good  pottery. 

The  first  authentic  potter  of  Japan  was 
a  Buddhistic  priest  by  the  name  of  Giyoji. 


230 


JAPANESE  ART 


At  the  start  the  Japanese  potters  were 
disciples  of  the  Chinese ;  they  learnt  from 
them  the  various  baking  and  enamelled 
coatings  of  countless  vivid  and  delicate 
tints.  A  potter  by  the  name  of  Toshiro, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
made  a  special  visit  to  China  to  perfect 
himself  in  his  art,  and  on  return  to  his 
native  town,  Soto  in  Owari,  he  introduced 
great  improvements  in  the  character  of 
the  ware  made  there.  Owing  to  his  exer¬ 
tions  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  the 
art. 

Shortly  after,  when  household  utensils 
of  lacquer  went  out  of  use,  the  demand 
for  pottery  greatly  increased,  and  new 
forms  and  processes  were  invented.  In 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
the  iridescent  blacks,  reds,  browns,  and 
bottle  greens  of  the  Raku  ware,  rather 
crude  in  form,  were  the  favourite  prod¬ 
ucts  of  the  potter’s  wheel. 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


23I 


To  the  ceramic  pieces  originally  de¬ 
rived  from  China,  the  numberless  isolated 
kilns,  established  in  all  the  provinces,  and 
particularly  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kyoto,  added  the  beauty  of  their  prod¬ 
ucts,  as,  for  instance,  the  Timba  kiln, 
with  its  heavy  brown  and  yellow  glazes. 

Then,  suddenly,  at  the  end  of  the  six¬ 
teenth  century,  shortly  after  tea  had  be¬ 
come  the  national  beverage  and  the 
elaborate  tea  ceremonies  had  come  into 
vogue,  there  came  a  marvellous  outburst 
of  colour,  the  ceramic  art  underwent  a 
complete  revolution,  and  the  results  were 
pottery  of  remarkable  ingenuity,  taste,  and 
skill,  as  the  Awata,  Kiyomidzu,  and  Omura 
ware  of  the  colour  of  coffee  and  milk, 
covered  with  classic  decoration  in  starchy 
blue,  light  green,  and  red  coral. 

Ninsei  (f  1660)  was  the  founder  of 
these  three  kilns.  He  was  the  originator 
of  this  style  of  pottery,  and  of  all  decorated 


JAPANESE  ART 


232 

pottery.  Authentic  specimens  are  very 
rare.  Many  a  bit  of  “  old  Kyoto,”  as  these 
wares  are  called,  supposed  to  be  at  least 
three  hundred  years  old,  shows  in  the 
cracklin  ground  a  mark  made  by  some 
unscrupulous  tradesman  of  to-day. 

Like  all  great  potters,  Ninsei  was  very 
skilful  with  his  brush.  His  decorations, 
as  well  as  those  of  his  contemporaries, 
were  worthy  of  a  painter.  There  were 
storks  of  pure  white  with  a  touch  of  ver¬ 
milion  on  the  head,  chrysanthemums  with 
petals  overlapping  each  other,  landscapes 
with  half  a  dozen  strokes  of  the  brush, 
figures  in  elaborate  court  dresses,  etc. 

Two  of  his  foremost  disciples  were 
Kenzan  (1663-1743),  a  brother  of  Korin, 
and  Yeiraku,  who  founded  the  kiln  of 
Imado.  Kenzan  preferred  massive  forms 
and  bold  decorations.  He  tried  to  give 
his  ceramic  productions  the  appearance 
of  archaic  heaviness  and  awkwardness. 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


233 


They  are  remarkably  beautiful  in  their 
lustre  and  subdued  colouring. 

Yeiraku,  who  lived  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  was  a  virtuoso  in 
his  profession.  Gonse  calls  him  “  le  plus 
etonnant  pasticheur.”  He  neglected  form 
somewhat  in  favour  of  colour  schemes. 
He  was  a  perfect  technician,  and  equally 
successful  in  metallic,  speckled,  iridescent, 
dull,  vigorous,  and  delicate  effects.  He 
sometimes  animated  his  surface  with  a 
crystalline  shimmer  that  lent  a  peculiar 
ethereal  charm  to  his  work.  His  tea-sets 
were  particularly  in  demand. 

Other  potters,  whose  work  is  highly 
esteemed  by  collectors,  were  Shioukai,  who 
excelled  in  the  modelling  of  little  statu¬ 
ettes;  Dohatchi  and  Mokubei  and  Roku- 
bei,  who  devoted  themselves  to  miniature 
bric-a-brac,  mostly  in  the  shape  of  animals. 

The  pottery  of  Ninsei  and  his  followers 
is  a  truly  native  product.  Their  glazes, 


234 


JAPANESE  ART 


composition  of  colours,  crackle,  and  lace- 
work  is  entirely  original  with  them.  It  is 
invariably  picturesque  in  effect,  in  con¬ 
trast  to  the  academic  conceptions,  and  the 
severe  formalism  of  Chinese  ceramics. 

Experts  can  recognize  the  origin  of  a 
piece  of  pottery  most  easily  by  its  colour. 
They  know  that  soft  greenish  grays  are 
peculiar  to  the  Sanda  Seiji  kiln,  delicate 
grays  and  salmon  shades  to  the  Haji  style ; 
that  Somaw  are  excels  in  speckled  grays 
and  browns,  and  Oki  in  lustrous  yellow 
browns ;  that  opaque  inglazes  are  a  char¬ 
acteristic  of  the  Shigariki  school,  and  that 
the  Oriba  potters  have  made  a  specialty 
of  splashed  effects. 

The  secrets  of  porcelain  manufacture 
were  introduced  into  Japan  by  Shonsoi 
in  1520.  Arita,  in  the  province  of  Hizen, 
was  from  the  start,  and  is  still  to-day,  the 
leading  porcelain  manufacturing  town  of 
Japan.  The  ware  was  called  Imari,  simply 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS  235 

because  Imari,  at  the  head  of  the  gulf 
of  Omura,  is  the  principal  shipping  port 
for  Arita’s  products.  Every  other  shop  in 
the  main  street  of  Arita  is  devoted  to  the 
sale  of  pottery,  while  the  noise  of  the  clay¬ 
grinding  and  pulverizing  machines  contin¬ 
ually  haunts  the  ear,  for  on  either  side  of 
the  narrow  town  a  watercourse  supplies 
the  power  by  which  they  are  kept  in  action 
night  and  day. 

The  larger  part  of  the  pottery  produced 
here  is  the  underglazed  blue  and  white 
combination  which  made  Arita  famous, 
and  which  was  successfully  imitated  in 
the  Delft  ware.  But  the  manufacture  is 
by  no  means  confined  to  that  class;  the 
Koransha  factory,  so  well  represented  at 
the  Chicago  Fair,  also  produces  jars,  vases, 
and  table  sets  in  combinations  of  rich  dark 
green,  red,  gold,  and  chocolate  brown. 

The  Kaga  porcelain  is  almost  as  famous 
as  that  of  Arita.  About  1650,  Saitchiso, 


236  JAPANESE  ART 

after  serving  a  long  apprenticeship  with 
Shonsai,  went  to  Koutani,  and  created 
those  choice  specimens  known  as  Kou¬ 
tani  ware,  masked  by  enamels.  His  prod¬ 
ucts  are  not  numerous,  but  full  of  energy 
in  their  colouring  of  manganese,  myrtle 
green,  faded  yellow,  black,  and  white,  and 
enriched  in  the  more  valuable  specimens 
by  coatings  of  gold  and  silver.  The  trans¬ 
parency  of  the  glaze  is  exquisite.  The 
ware  is  very  rare,  as  Shonsai,  as  well  as 
his  successor,  Morikaghe,  a  painter  of  the 
Kano  school,  could  never  be  induced  to 
work  for  the  ordinary  trade. 

Most  popular  of  all  Japanese  porcelains 
is  the  Satsuma  ware.  The  general  idea 
seems  to  be  that  its  products  were  rather 
large  in  size,  but  the  opposite  is  the  case. 
The  large  vases  which  we  see  so  often  at 
auction  sales  were  specially  made  for  the 
European  market.  The  ware  is  known 
for  its  soft,  cream-coloured  tones,  which 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


237 


have  almost  the  effect  of  old  ivory,  with 
delicate  colour  decoration  broken  with 
pale  gold  tints. 

By  far  more  original,  however,  is  the 
Bizen  ware,  at  its  best  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  with  its  dull  leaden  blues,  and 
the  metallic  sheen  of  brown,  and  the 
quaint  intrinsically  original  Banko  ware, 
worked  out  of  sheets  of  thin  clay,  pressed, 
folded,  cut,  and  patterned  in  white  mosaic, 
or  embellished  with  glazed  figures  in  low 
relief,  and  resembling  nothing  so  much  as 
bits  of  soft  gray  or  white  crepe  stretched 
over  a  hidden  frame. 

Very  little  progress,  artistically,  has  been 
made  in  the  porcelain  manufacture  since 
1800,  —  the  manufacturers  are  apparently 
satisfied  with  copying  the  models  handed 
down  from  the  past,  —  while  the  purely 
mechanical  parts  of  the  process  have  been 
steadily  improved.  Banko,  Kyoto,  and 
Arita  can  still  be  bought  to  advantage 


238 


JAPANESE  ART 


by  the  not  too  fastidious  collector.  The 
Owari  kilns  in  Nagoya,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  devoted  almost  entirely  to  productions 
for  the  foreign  market  Its  wares  are 
the  least  desirable  and  least  Japanese  of 
any  in  Japan,  the  articles  poorly  mod¬ 
elled  and  decorated  in  all  the  hideous 
pinks,  blue,  and  yellows  known  to  the 
aniline  dye,  and  ablaze  with  cheap 
gilding. 

Also  in  the  manipulations  of  metals  and 
amalgams  like  the  shakudo,  iron  enam¬ 
elled  with  gold,  silver,  and  bronze,  the 
Japanese  are  past  masters.  The  endless 
versatility  and  brilliancy  of  idea  which 
they  display,  for  instance,  in  their  sword- 
guards,  is  marvellous.  They  have  a  way 
of  combining  alloys  with  pure  metals, 
and  of  producing  effects  by  the  inlaying 
and  overlaying  of  metals  —  often  intro¬ 
ducing  half  a  dozen  different  metals  into 
a  space  not  covering  an  inch,  in  order  to 


Bronze  Vase 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


239 


produce  a  picture  of  variegated  colours  — - 
far  beyond  the  reach  and  skill  of  Western 
artisans. 

Braziers,  incense-holders,  water-tanks, 
flower  vases,  standing  lanterns,  memorial 
tablets,  and  tomb  doors  gave  the  bronze 
workers  abundance  of  opportunity  to 
show  their  skill  in  handling  metal  also 
in  larger  dimensions.  The  big  bell  of 
Kyoto,  fourteen  feet  high  by  nine  feet 
two  inches  in  diameter,  proves  that  they 
were  thoroughly  initiated  into  the  secrets 
of  bronze  casting. 

The  casting  of  a  memorial  lantern,  or 
column  for  some  temple,  was  usually  a 
public  and  outdoor  affair,  attended  with 
festive  hilarities.  Furnaces,  bellows,  cast¬ 
ing  -  pots,  tools,  and  appliances  were 
brought  to  or  prepared  at  the  spot,  and 
the  details  of  the  process  were  watched 
by  holiday  crowds. 

Their  methods  of  bronze  casting,  and 


240 


JAPANESE  ART 


their  jealously  guarded  secrets  of  alloy, 
niello,  and  metallic  work  seem  to  be  of 
Chinese,  Persian,  or  Indian  origin.  At 
least,  such  is  the  opinion  of  experts.  The 
forms  and  shapes  of  old  temple  ornaments 
and  flower  vases,  in  my  opinion,  point 
unmistakably  to  a  Persian  origin. 

There  is  a  peculiar  grace  and  freedom 
in  their  work,  despite  its  manifold  minute 
and  delicate  details.  Nobody  can  com¬ 
pete  with  them  in  representing,  for 
instance,  the  undulating  lines  of  a  lotus 
leaf.  The  fidelity  in  the  most  minute 
markings  of  leaf  and  flower,  even  to  the 
motion  and  colour  of  rain-drops  on  their 
cup-shaped  surfaces,  is  amazing  as  it  is 
inimitable.  Their  bronze  birds,  fishes, 
and  insects  seem  to  be  instinct  with  life, 
so  true  are  they  to  nature.  In  expressing 
the  attitudes  and  motions  of  fish  and  fowl, 
and  the  sportive  grace  of  domestic 
animals  and  little  forest  creatures,  they 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


24I 


have  never  been  surpassed.  Remarkable 
also  is  their  knowledge  of  the  value  of 
reflected  light  in  relation  to  metal  compo¬ 
sition.  It  endows  their  work  with  a  rare 
pictorial  quality. 

In  the  fifteenth  century,  the  Goto  and 
Sojo  families  excelled  in  metal  works. 
The  seventeenth  century  was  the  classic 
age  for  metal  work.  The  bronzes  of  this 
time  have  a  certain  severity  of  form,  great 
vigour  in  the  modelling,  and  a  dull  black 
colour.  In  the  following  century  the 
forms  became  more  graceful  in  line,  and 
the  colour  effect  was  heightened  by  the 
inlaying  and  overlaying  of  metals.  This 
age  also  produced  the  greatest  workers  in 
cire  perdu. 

The  principal  artists  of  this  period  were 
Seimin  and  Taoun,  both  incomparable  in 
the  mastery  of  their  material,  Tiyo, 
Keisai,  Jiogioko,  Somin,  Seifu,  Tokusai, 
and  Nakoshi.  The  signature  of  any  of 


242 


JAPANESE  ART 


these  men  on  a  piece  of  work  guarantees 
its  artistic  value. 

Although  modern  work  does  not  come 
up  to  the  standard  of  the  old,  it  is  at 
times  very  beautiful.  The  bronzes,  set 
with  jewels,  which  created  such  a  sensa¬ 
tion  at  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Phil¬ 
adelphia,  show  that  the  metal  workers 
still  possess  some  originality. 

These  jewel-incrusted  bronzes  have  a 
story.  On  the  hilt,  handle,  and  scab¬ 
bard  of  the  samurai’s  swords  from  two 
to  twenty  ornaments  were  embedded, 
wrought  in  metal,  with  the  highest  art  of 
the  metallurgist.  After  the  issue  of  an 
imperial  edict  in  1868,  the  use  of  swords 
was  suddenly  abolished,  and  the  samurais, 
impoverished  as  they  were,  were  practical 
enough  to  dispose  of  their  feudal  weapons. 
The  market,  consequently,  was  glutted 
with  an  amazing  stock  of  sword  jewels. 
By  a  happy  thought  these  gems  of  art 


Bronze  Vase. 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


243 


were  applied  to  bronzes,  and  the  results 
were  those  quaint  vases  and  jars,  which 
look  like  the  “  Holy  Grails  ”  of  some 
Eastern  legend. 

The  noblest  of  Japanese  crafts,  purely 
native  in  origin  and  development,  is  that 
of  lacquering.  In  the  same  way  as  China 
has  given  its  name  to  all  porcelain,  Japan 
has  given  its  name  to  all  lacquer  ware, 
first  introduced  to  the  knowledge  and 
admiration  of  Europe  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  beauty  and  excellence  of 
Japanese  lacquer,  its  mirror-like  and  rain¬ 
proof  surface,  has  never  been  matched, 
not  even  in  China. 

The  materials  for  writing,  household 
furnishings,  and  personal  adornment,  cups 
and  saucers,  trays  and  sake  bottles,  medi¬ 
cine  boxes  and  dishes,  with  articles  of 
civic  ceremony  and  warlike  helmets, 
shields,  and  armour,  furnished  the  prin¬ 
cipal  fields  for  the  display  of  its  finest 


244 


JAPANESE  ART 


artistic  achievements,  though  large  sur¬ 
faces,  such  as  doors,  staircases,  ceilings, 
frames  and  panels,  vehicles,  and  even 
ships,  were  lacquered. 

The  Japanese  lacquer  varnish  is  gath¬ 
ered  from  the  urushi-tree,  which,  it  is 
said,  supplies  a  finer  gum  than  that  of 
any  other  species.  It  is  subjected  to 
various  manipulations  and  refining  pro¬ 
cesses  before  it  can  safely  be  mixed  with 
colouring  matter.  From  the  first  gather¬ 
ing  to  the  last  application,  increasing  care 
as  to  the  dryness  or  moisture  of  the  at¬ 
mosphere,  the  exclusion  of  every  particle 
of  dust,  and  other  conditions,  are  essential. 
The  workmen  are  “in  possession  of  secret 
processes,”  and  we  must  be  satisfied  with 
knowing  that  layer  after  layer  —  up  to 
fifty  coats  —  of  the  lacquer  varnish  are 
laid  on  the  basic  material  at  intervals  of 
days  or  weeks,  and  that  after  it  has  thor¬ 
oughly  dried  —  and,  by  a  strange  paradox, 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


245 


it  must  dry  in  dampness,  well  moistened, 
or  even  saturated  with  water,  else  it  will 
run  or  stick  —  the  same  smoothing  pro¬ 
cess  with  lumps  of  charcoal  and  the  fin¬ 
gers,  after  all  the  most  perfect  polishing 
instruments,  is  repeated. 

The  articles  to  be  lacquered  are  gener¬ 
ally  made  of  fine-grained  pine  wood,  very 
carefully  seasoned  and  smoothed,  so  that 
not  the  slightest  inequality  of  surface  or 
roughness  of  edge  remains.  But  also  silk, 
ivory,  and  tortoise-shell  are  used.  In  the 
finer  and  older  specimens,  bringing  their 
weight  in  gold,  the  varnish  is  so  hard  and 
immune  that  neither  boiling  water  nor 
boiling  oil  will  affect  its  surface. 

The  art  of  lacquering  dates  historically 
from  the  seventh  century,  though  tradi¬ 
tion  assigns  its  birth  to  the  ages  when 
almanacs,  clocks,  and  writings  had  not 
yet  arrived  from  the  Asian  mainland. 
Not  a  few  articles,  now  in  national  or 


246 


JAPANESE  ART 


private  museums,  are,  by  documentary 
evidence,  over  a  thousand  years  old. 

“  In  old  feudal  days,”  Griffis  relates, 
“  when  nearly  every  daimyo  had  his  court 
lacquerer,  a  set  of  household  furniture  and 
toilet  utensils  was  part  of  the  dowry  of 
a  noble  lady.  On  the  birth  of  a  daughter, 
it  was  common  for  the  lacquer  artist  to 
begin  the  making  of  a  mirror-case,  a 
washing- bowl,  a  cabinet,  a  clothes-rack, 
or  a  chest  of  drawers,  often  occupying 
from  one  to  five  whole  years  on  a  single 
article.  An  inro,  or  pill-box,  might  re¬ 
quire  several  years  for  perfection,  though 
small  enough  to  go  into  a  fob.  By  the 
time  the  young  lady  was  marriageable,  her 
outfit  of  lacquer  was  superb.” 

The  first  information  of  the  existence 
of  lacquer  ware  dates  from  the  ninth 
century.  In  a  book  published  by  the  phi¬ 
losopher,  Shihei,  red  and  golden  lacquer 
are  incidentally  mentioned.  At  the  be- 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS  247 

ginning  of  the  tenth  century,  the  Nashidji 
lacquer,  of  a  yellowish  orange  colour, 
sprinkled  with  gold,  was  invented. 

The  oldest  lacquerer,  of  whom  authen¬ 
tic  specimens  can  still  be  procured,  was 
Hoyami  Koyetsu  (1556-1637).  His  black 
generally  assumed  an  agreeable  soft  brown 
tint,  owing  to  a  substratum  of  red  col¬ 
oured  lacquer.  A  few  years  later,  Soyet- 
sou,  Koma  Kiuhaka,  and  Korin  became 
prominent.  With  them,  lacquer  of  the 
hue  of  maple  sugar  came  into  fashion. 
Their  designs  were  chiefly  distinguish¬ 
able  for  bravura  of  execution.  Korin’s 
pieces  were  almost  repellent  by  their 
vigour.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce 
pewter,  lead,  and  tin  in  lacquer  work. 
His  gold  of  a  rich  red  hue,  pleasant  and 
soft  in  tone,  —  an  apposition  to  the  cus¬ 
tomary  brownish  and  yellowish  gold, — 
has  often  been  imitated,  but  never  ex¬ 
celled. 


248 


JAPANESE  ART 


The  favourite  subjects  of  crane  and 
streams,  rock  and  sea  waves,  rain¬ 
drops  and  petrels,  cloud  and  dragon, 
Chinese  poetry,  idealized  landscapes,  or 
the  repertoire  of  graphic  designs,  were 
repeated  over  and  over  again.  The  artist 
knew  them  by  heart ;  they  were  his  stock 
in  trade,  and  the  public,  familiar  with 
these  standards  and  symbols  for  many 
generations,  understood  and  appreciated 
them.  Also  pet  patterns,  in  the  form  of 
borders  or  diapers  in  combination  with 
floral  and  other  designs,  were  used  with 
excellent  effect. 

Of  the  twenty  -  eight  most  famous 
lacquer  artists  of  Japan,  the  majority 
flourished  in  Yedo,  where  the  beauty  and 
delicacy  of  execution  reached  its  highest 
perfection. 

Ogawa  Ritsuo,  whom  I  have  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  chapter  as  one  of  the 
foremost  sculptors  of  Japan,  is  probably 


•ai  ■•’H 


Lacquer-  Work 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS 


249 


the  most  skilful  lacquerer  the  world  has 
ever  known.  His  style  is  considered 
classic.  Nobody  excelled  him  in  the  deli¬ 
cate  management  and  decoration  of  the 
lac,  in  the  science  of  composition,  and  the 
profound  knowledge  of  the  craft.  His 
gold,  like  that  of  the  great  Korin,  full  of 
novel  and  rare  effects,  capable  of  running 
through  a  whole  gamut  of  sober  yet 
brilliant  tones  of  red,  yellow,  and  green, 
would  deserve  a  special  study. 

His  miniature  cabinets,  jewel  and  writ¬ 
ing  boxes  belong  to  the  most  beautiful 
pieces  of  decoration  which  can  be  seen. 
But  they  have  grown  very  scarce,  even 
in  Japan  itself,  and  rarely  turn  up  in  any 
sale.  He  was  a  great  manipulator  of 
materials ;  lac  alone  did  not  satisfy  him : 
he  inserted  ivory  and  agates  into  his  com¬ 
positions,  tortoise-shell,  coral,  and  mother- 
of-pearl,  and  pieces  of  ancient  pottery,  as 
well  as  gold  and  silver  in  rich  profusion. 


250 


JAPANESE  ART 


He  incrusted,  he  modelled,  he  dama¬ 
scened,  he  soldered  and  riveted  with 
marvellous  precision.  His  treatment  was 
always  sculpturesque,  his  outlines  were 
bold  and  rugged,  and  his  modelling  superb. 

He  had  many  followers,  notably  Han- 
zan,  Zeshin,  and  Kenya.  Hanzan  came 
next  to  his  master  as  a  lacist  in  certain 
effects  of  great  brilliancy,  and  even  ex¬ 
celled  him  in  combinations  of  lac  and 
pearl.  He  was  particularly  fond  of  repre¬ 
senting  fish  and  shells  in  their  natural 
colours  upon  a  rich  background  of  rich 
avanturine  gold.  Zeshin,  who  had  a  wild 
and  unrestrained  fancy,  imitated  in  lacquer 
every  other  kind  of  material.  Some  of 
his  pieces  of  lac  look  like  pottery  and 
wood  carvings,  others  reproduce  all  the 
lustre  and  golden  browns  and  yellows  of 
an  ancient  bronze,  discoloured  by  age. 
Kenya  had  less  vigour,  invention,  and 
originality  than  the  other  two,  but  was 


THE  ORNAMENTAL  ARTS  25 1 

almost  their  equal  in  the  combination  of 
materials  and  in  richness  of  pictorial 
effect. 

The  last  faithful  adherent  of  the  old 
school  of  lacquering  was  Watanobe  Tosu, 
a  contemporary  of  Zeshin,  who  still  lived 
in  Tokyo  in  the  seventies  of  the  last  cen¬ 
tury,  working  for  years  at  a  tobacco-box 
ten  by  eight  and  six  inches  in  dimensions, 
by  order  of  the  empress. 

The  old  artisans,  who  made  beautiful  and 
ingenious  things  to  please  the  fancy  of  a 
daimyo,  and  to  be  presented  as  gifts  to  a 
neighbouring  daimyo,  put  good  and  ear¬ 
nest  work  into  everything  they  made  ;  but 
now  that  the  average  workmen  have  aban¬ 
doned  their  old  unmercenary  standard 
and  cater  to  foreign  taste,  continually 
reproducing  the  same  stock  of  ideas  and 
set  of  symbols,  their  productions  have 
become  exceedingly  bad  in  taste  to  the 


connoisseur. 


252 


JAPANESE  ART 


And  yet,  being  after  all  a  good  deal 
superior  to  any  of  our  factory  bric-a-brac, 
their  productions  are  still  able  to  give  us 
a  faint  idea  of  the  remarkable  imperish¬ 
able  qualities  of  the  art  of  old  Japan. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART 

HE  political  changes  which  had 
taken  place  in  Japan  —  the  open¬ 
ing  of  the  islands  to  foreign  com¬ 
merce  in  1859,  the  inevitable  struggle 
between  the  decrepit  Shogunate  and  its 
recalcitrant  vassals,  the  complete  down¬ 
fall  of  the  former  in  1867,  and  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  a  new  political  organization, 
presided  over  by  the  Mikado,  affecting 
the  expressions  of  its  national  life  to 
the  very  core,  did  not  leave  the  arts 
untouched. 

For  a  decade  or  so,  when  the  nation 
was  seized  with  a  sudden  passion  for 
Western  ideas,  art  was  sadly  neglected, 


254 


JAPANESE  ART 


almost  forgotten.  The  reorganization  of 
the  constitution,  the  reform  of  the  laws, 
the  formation  of  an  army  and  navy,  the 
construction  of  highways,  railroads,  light¬ 
houses,  telegraph  lines,  and  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  a  national  system  of  education, 
had  first  to  be  attended  to.  The  artists, 
deprived  of  native  patronage,  starved  or 
found  employment  in  cheap  production 
for  the  foreign  market,  and  the  profession 
involuntarily  turned  to  Europe  for  guid¬ 
ance.  The  visible  superiority  of  the  Occi¬ 
dent  in  all  other  matters  eventually  led  to 
a  study  of  the  methods  and  principles  of 
Western  art.  A  number  of  young  men 
made  their  way  to  European  and  Ameri¬ 
can  studios,  and  trained  themselves  to 
charcoal  studies  from  Greek  casts,  and  oil 
studies  from  nature  and  still  life,  in  the 
same  manner  as  our  art  students  do.  It 
was  even  found  necessary  to  import 
Italian  painters  and  sculptors,  and  to 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  255 

establish  art  academies,  which  hitherto 
had  been  unknown. 

The  results  of  this  influence  were  two¬ 
fold.  It  has  created,  firstly,  a  new  school, 
based  entirely  on  the  art  of  the  West,  in 
which  European  methods  and  materials 
have  been  adopted  to  the  complete  exclu¬ 
sion  of  the  Japanese.  Secondly,  it  has 
penetrated  into  the  recesses  of  Japanese 
art  itself,  causing  yet  another  new  school 
to  arise,  which,  while  it  works  in  the  old 
lines,  and  with  the  old  materials,  admits 
the  virtues  of  Western  ideas,  and  en¬ 
deavours  to  assimilate  them  so  far  as  it  is 
able.  Thus,  the  art  world  of  Japan 
is  split  into  three  sections,  perfectly  dis¬ 
tinct  in  their  views,  and  well  defined  in 
the  results  of  the  work  in  which  these 
views  are  carried  out.  They  may  fittingly 
be  termed  the  Conservatives,  the  Moder¬ 
ate  Conservatives,  and  the  Radicals. 

The  Conservatives  naturally  represent 


256 


JAPANESE  ART 


the  old  traditional  school.  Although 
there  is  among  them  no  master  alive 
whose  name  could  be  put  on  the  roll  of 
the  great  artists  “  who  have  been,”  there 
are  many  who,  whilst  they  lack  inventive 
power,  still  possess  executive  skill  of  a 
high  order,  and  are  able  to  preserve, 
technically,  at  least,  the  traditions  of  their 
predecessors. 

Kikuchi  Yosai,  and  later  his  pupil, 
Matsumato  Fuko,  tried  to  keep  up  the  old 
traditions  by  painting  historical  pictures, 
and  Isen  and  Shosen,  lacking  inventive 
spirit  of  their  own,  were  busy  with  copy¬ 
ing  ancient  masterpieces,  Imao  Keinen, 
noted  for  his  graphic  delineation  of  birds 
and  flowers,  and  Giokusen  worked  suc¬ 
cessfully  in  the  Okyo  style.  The  latter 
artist  produced  a  most  remarkable  kake¬ 
mono  in  his  “  Ghost,”  floating  up  out  of 
space,  the  head,  black  shock  of  hair,  and 
shoulders  most  minutely  painted  on  the 


Kiosai.  —  Council  in  the  Dragon  Castle. 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  257 

border,  while  the  rest  of  the  body  fades 
away  into  the  silken  canvas.  Also  Hoku¬ 
sai's  two  talented  pupils,  Hokkei  and 
Kawanobe  Kiosai  (1831-1889),  were  still 
living.  Both  were  gifted  workmen,  who 
followed  their  master  exactly  as  regards 
subjects  and  manner,  but  they  fail  in  that 
mysterious  creative  power  which  made  the 
works  of  Hokusai  seem  alive. 

Kikuchi  Yosai  (1787-1878)  really  needs 
a  chapter  by  himself.  He  is  in  his  way 
as  remarkable  an  artist  as  Hiroshige  or 
Hokusai.  He  was  already  famous  as  an 
historian  and  literary  man  when  he  took 
up  painting,  and  he  made  use  of  all  his 
learning  in  the  new  profession.  He  be¬ 
came  the  delineator  of  historical  person¬ 
ages.  His  “  Kanoaka  painting  ”  is  a  good 
example  of  his  work.  Like  Alma  Tadema, 
he  made  the  most  scrupulous  archaeologi¬ 
cal  studies,  and  it  is  the  more  astonishing 
that  his  compositions  are  simplicity  itself. 


JAPANESE  ART 


258 

He  even  disdained  the  use  of  colour.  He 
is  satisfied  with  frankly  telling  what  he 
knows,  yet  in  a  masterly  way  as  far  as 
drawing  is  concerned.  In  pure  line  few 
have  been  his  superior.  He  is  the  ele¬ 
gant  causeur  of  historical  anecdotes,  and 
his  kakemonos  appeal  to  one’s  intellect 
even  more  strongly  than  to  one’s  eyes. 

The  work  of  the  Radicals  is  entirely 
Western.  They  found  the  classical  styles 
unequal  to  the  expression  of  the  new 
ideas,  and  largely  unintelligible  to  a  mod¬ 
ern  public,  and  frankly  adopted  the  Euro¬ 
pean  style  of  painting.  In  their  choice  of 
themes,  in  the  mediums  employed,  and 
in  the  treatment,  they  hardly  differ  from 
European  artists.  In  order  to  realize  how 
remarkable  this  really  is,  one  has  to  con¬ 
sider  how  complete  is  the  transformation 
of  conditions  under  which  it  is  produced. 
It  is  not  merely  the  transition  from  water¬ 
colour  to  oil,  the  substitution  of  canvas 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  259 

for  absorbent  paper,  but  the  whole  method, 
the  composition,  the  principles  and  the 
ideas  have  also  been  transformed ;  the 
ancestral  ways  have  been  entirely  aban¬ 
doned.  Their  pictures  denote  enthusiasm 
and  eager  study,  but  at  the  same  time  a 
painful  lack  of  individuality.  It  is  exceed¬ 
ingly  doubtful  if  it  were  possible  for  older 
and  individual  artists  to  change  from  the 
old  to  the  new. 

The  Radical  school,  called  Meiji  Bijut- 
sou  Kwai  (founded  1889),  is  composed 
exclusively  of  young  men  and  women, 
many  of  them  being  merely  amateurs. 
Being  really  nothing  but  students,  they 
invariably  had  attached  themselves  to  the 
methods  of  some  Western  artist,  caught 
his  style,  and  formed  themselves  on  him. 
Their  first  exhibition  of  pictures,  at 
Tokyo,  in  1890,  was  not  very  numerous, 
but  it  reflected  almost  in  every  instance 
the  manner,  the  subject,  the  composition, 


26o 


JAPANESE  ART 


and  the  execution  of  some  Parisian,  Mu¬ 
nich,  or  New  York  artist.  Particularly 
noteworthy  was  their  astounding  power 
of  copying.  The  still-life  studies  were 
really  the  masterpieces  of  the  exhibition. 
Also  in  arrangement  and  colour  combina¬ 
tion  their  work  has  a  peculiar  charm,  a 
national  flavour  of  its  own. 

Seiki  Ivouroda,  a  pupil  of  Raphael  Col¬ 
lins,  of  Paris,  is  the  leading  exponent  of 
this  school.  He  returned  to  Japan  in 
1894,  and  was  made  professor  of  the 
Western  style  of  painting  at  the  Tokyo 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts  in  1896.  Dissatis¬ 
fied  with  the  amateurish  work  of  the  Meiji 
Bijutsou  Kwai,  he  created  a  new  seces¬ 
sionist  society,  which  used  the  head  of 
a  horse  on  a  palette  as  coat  of  arms,  and 
called  itself  Shiro-uma,  or  White  Horse 
Society.  In  October,  1896,  the  Japanese 
Secession  held  its  first  exhibition.  It  was 
a  bold  attempt  to  revolutionize  art.  But 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  26 1 

neither  the  story-telling  pictures  of  Kou- 
roda,  nor  the  impressionistic  figure  stud¬ 
ies  of  Eisaku  Wada  had  any  striking 
merit  in  themselves.  They  attracted,  how¬ 
ever,  a  large  measure  of  public  attention, 
and  gave  rise  to  a  lively  controversy 
between  the  adherents  of  the  old  and  new 
styles. 

The  sculptors  of  the  new  movement 
are  even  less  original  than  the  painters. 
The  monuments  recently  put  up  in  Japan 
are  fully  as  bad  as  some  of  the  bronze 
statuary  which  disgraces  our  public 
squares.  Only  the  equestrian  statue  of 
General  Kusunoke  Masashige,  by  the 
sculptor  Takamura  Korin,  is  worthy  of 
some  consideration. 

The  Radicals  never  convince  us  when 
they  attempt  elaborate  compositions. 
Kouroda’s  most  important  picture,  “An 
Old  Story,”  depicting  a  number  of  geishas 
and  young  men  in  a  temple  garden,  listen- 


262 


JAPANESE  ART 


ing  to  the  flute-playing  of  an  old  priest, 
is  not  even  as  interesting  as  Alma  Ta- 
dema,  while  his  views  of  Fusiyama  and 
river  scenes,  bearing  all  the  characteristics 
of  Japanese  composition,  are  exquisite 
creations.  They  are  vibrant  with  light 
and  warmth,  and  show  keen  observation 
of  nature  in  the  Western  sense. 

The  Radical  school  seems  to  have  no 
future.  It  will  never  become  national. 
Its  exponents  have  nothing  to  say  to 
their  countrymen,  at  least,  nothing  of  last¬ 
ing  value.  They  will  always  be  consid¬ 
ered  aliens,  no  matter  whether  they  have 
their  studios  in  Tokyo  or  New  York. 
Genjiro  Yeto,  a  very  talented  artist,  who 
has  made  New  York  his  home,  and  who 
has  deliberately  abandoned  all  the  ideals 
of  his  countrymen  in  regard  to  art,  proves 
this  statement  to  be  a  true  one.  It  is 
impossible  to  classify  him  as  a  Japanese 
artist,  as  he  has  nothing  in  common  with 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART 


263 


his  country,  and  I  fear  that  he  will  never 
be  regarded  as  an  American  artist,  as  he 
has  remained  thoroughly  Oriental  in 
everything  else  but  his  art. 

The  process  of  absorbing  new  ideas, 
which  has  mainly  occupied  the  Japanese 
nation  during  the  last  thirty  years,  would, 
however,  have  been  incomplete  without 
this  innovation.  It  undoubtedly  did 
good;  it  enabled  the  Japanese  to  get  in 
touch  with  Western  art  ideas.  But,  of 
the  numbers  who  have  taken  it  up, 
how  many  will  remain  faithful  ?  Even 
now  one  might  assert  that  it  was  only  a 
means  to  an  end.  Innovations  of  this 
kind  do  an  immense  amount  of  good ; 
they  rouse  people  out  of  sleep ;  they  make 
them  earnest,  enthusiastic,  and  thought¬ 
ful,  and  no  doubt  the  Radicals  were  right 
in  preaching  a  “new  art.”  Yet,  every 
true  lover  of  art  will  rejoice  to  hear,  that 
to  this  very  day,  all  attempts  to  assimilate 


264 


JAPANESE  ART 


their  art  to  ours  have  been  unsuccessful, 
as  the  world  cannot  afford  to  lose  an  art 
which  is  so  unique,  so  perfect  in  its  own 
line,  and  which  no  other  country  can  suc¬ 
cessfully  emulate. 

Meanwhile  a  lucrative  trade  had  sprung 
up  in  the  exportation  of  antiques  and 
modern  decorated  wares.  Japanese  art 
had  become  a  craze  in  the  West,  and  the 
Japanese  government,  which  had  done  so 
much  to  meet  the  general  demand  for 
information  as  to  the  learning,  customs, 
laws,  and  institutions  of  foreign  countries, 
found  it,  at  last,  advisable  to  do  some¬ 
thing  for  the  encouragement  of  its  native 
art.  It  realized  that  the  flower  of  its 
civilization  had  been  sadly  neglected. 
Nearly  all  the  artists  of  the  old  tradition 
had  died  without  leaving  heirs,  and  the 
plundered  stock  of  antique  art  treasures 
was  well-nigh  exhausted.  At  the  close  of 
the  year  1888  the  Department  of  Educa- 


Hokkei.  —  Landscape. 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  265 

tion  opened  the  first  native  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts  at  Tokyo.  It  selected  Kakuzo 
Okakura  as  director,  and  the  selection 
proved  to  be  a  very  adequate  one. 
Although  no  artist  himself,  he  is  a  man 
of  considerable  art  knowledge,  who  can 
see  the  good  both  in  Eastern  and 
Western  art,  and  the  wise  touch  of  his 
advice  is  everywhere  felt. 

He  gathered  around  himself  as  instruc¬ 
tors  the  few  “progressive”  masters  who 
still  survived  in  the  arts  of  painting, 
sculpture,  metal  chasing,  bronze  casting, 
lacquering,  etc.,  enabling  the  younger 
generation  to  learn  the  respective  tradi¬ 
tions  before  they  had  completely  died 
out.  The  lacquerer  Zeshin  was  still 
living,  and  induced  to  join  the  new  move¬ 
ment.  The  government,  under  imperial 
patronage,  entrusted  commissions  for 
public  works  to  the  professors  of  the 
academy,  and  granted  to  students  and 


266 


JAPANESE  ART 


artists  pecuniary  prizes  with  honorary 
titles.  It  also  founded  a  new  national 
museum  for  the  preservation  and  study 
of  important  relics  in  Tokyo,  and  granted 
special  privileges  to  art  students  desirous 
of  becoming  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  collections  of  the  old  Kyoto  and  Nara 
museums.  The  latter  two  are  under  the 
direction  of  Yamataka,  an  expert  of  the 
old  style,  who  has  made  a  specialty  of 
arranging  annual  loan  exhibitions  of  the 
art  treasures  contained  in  monasteries 
and  temples  throughout  the  islands. 

Our  hopes  in  a  renaissance  of  Japanese 
art  must  inevitably  be  fixed  on  the  Mod¬ 
erate  Conservatives.  Working  on  the 
old  lines,  and  with  the  old  materials,  they 
endeavour,  by  yielding  to  the  influences 
of  Western  methods,  to  enlarge  their  own 
limitations.  What  they  are  capable  of, 
they  have  shown  at  the  Chicago  World’s 
Fair.  While  at  all  previous  expositions 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  267 

at  Vienna,  at  Paris,  and  at  Philadelphia, 
Japan’s  art  triumphs  were  largely  due 
to  her  loan  collections  of  antiques  or 
modern  replica,  at  Chicago,  for  the  first 
time,  modern  Japanese  art  has  deliber¬ 
ately  dared  to  be  original,  and  to  ask  the 
world’s  favour  for  her  contemporary  art 
on  its  own  merits. 

The  fact  that  Western  art  demands  a 
fuller  treatment  of  subordinate  parts,  how¬ 
ever,  involved  the  Japanese  artist  in  many 
unexpected  difficulties,  which  in  many 
instances  he  did  not  succeed  in  mastering. 
Let  me  exemplify  this  by  one  of  the  Exhi¬ 
bition  pictures.  My  readers  who  have 
visited  the  Chicago  Fair  may  still  recall  it. 

Two  wild  geese,  drawn  to  perfection, 
one  of  them  coming  out  of  the  picture 
straight  at  you,  are  flying  over  a  sea,  heav¬ 
ing  with  impossible  waves.  The  incident 
of  the  flying  geese  no  artist  but  a  Japan¬ 
ese  could  have  portrayed  so  deftly,  nor 


268 


JAPANESE  ART 


with  such  perfect  realization  of  flight ;  but 
Japanese  art  would  be  satisfied  with  the 
incident.  A  wash  or  two  of  pale  colour  to 
suggest  the  waves,  again  in  a  way  that  no 
other  art  but  Japanese  could  suggest,  and 
the  picture  would  be  finished.  The  new 
pictorial  principles,  however,  depend  on 
the  artist’s  skill  in  painting  it,  and  not 
on  the  vivid  imagination  of  the  beholder, 
on  which  the  Japanese  artist  depends  so 
much.  And  the  only  waves  which  the 
Japanese  artist  knows,  other  than  suggest¬ 
ive  waves,  are  in  hard  outlines,  and  he  is 
not  accustomed  to  deal  with  great  masses 
of  them.  And  so  it  has  come  about  that 
the  sea,  over  which  the  geese  are  flying, 
is  composed  of  a  repetition  of  harshly 
outlined  waves,  which  have  no  tonal  con¬ 
nection  with  the  birds. 

Hashimato  Gaho,  chief  professor  of  the 
Tokyo  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  and  un¬ 
doubtedly  Japan’s  greatest  living  artist, 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART 


269 


achieved  a  remarkable  success  with  a 
large  landscape  in  the  Exhibition.  He 
has  conceived  and  achieved  a  perfect 
scheme  of  light  through  the  whole  of  his 
picture,  a  thing  unknown  in  the  old  art. 
It  was  a  landscape  of  rocks  and  maple- 
trees,  with  a  waterfall.  The  whole  of  it 
was  full  of  the  light  of  day,  which  glittered 
in  the  sky  with  its  traditional  wash  of 
gold,  which  in  turn  scintillated  through 
the  glow  of  the  crimson  maple  leaves, 
illuminated  the  cloud  of  spray  from  the 
waterfall,  and  sparkled  in  the  river  as  it 
passed  out  of  sight.  Yet  even  Gaho  could 
not  tear  himself  away  from  rocks  treated 
in  the  old  traditional  manner ;  they  were 
crudely  outlined,  and  the  surfaces  simply 
washed  in,  so  that  the  irreverent  simile 
of  cut-out  pieces  of  cardboard  was  about 
justified. 

Other  works  of  special  remark,  with 
which  the  small,  but  choice  Chicago  dis- 


JAPANESE  ART 


2  70 

play  made  us  acquainted,  were  a  summer 
landscape  by  Kumagaye  Naokiko;  a  very 
originally  composed  “  Procession,”  by 
Ogato  Gekko ;  a  group  of  fowl  against 
a  background  of  snow,  by  Watanabe 
Seitei ;  and  the  head  of  a  tigress,  a  marvel 
of  Japanese  realism  and  technical  ac¬ 
complishments,  by  Kishi  Chikudo,  the 
grandson  of  Ganku,  a  celebrated  animal 
painter.  In  sculpture,  the  ape  watching 
an  eagle,  by  Takamaru  Kowun,  the  lead¬ 
ing  professor  of  wood-carving;  the  statu¬ 
ette  of  the  Buddhist  divinity  Kwannon, 
the  largest  ivory  carving  ever  made,  by  the 
famous  Ichikawa  Komei;  and  the  splen¬ 
did  bronze  relief  of  the  goddess  Benten, 
remarkable  for  the  richness  and  elegance 
of  lines,  by  the  great  caster  of  the  new  art 
school,  Okasaki  Sessei,  carried  off  the 
honours. 

Professor  Ernest  F.  Fenellosa  considers 
this  relief  the  most  notable  contribution 


Sessei.  —  Bronze  Relief  of  Goddess  Benten. 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  27 1 

to  Japanese  sculpture  of  recent  years.  He 
praises  it  in  the  following  words : 

“  Taking  the  simpler  bronze  reliefs  of 
the  Nara  school  of  the  seventh  century 
as  his  starting-point,  he  has  invested  them, 
with  a  wealth  of  line  structure  suggested 
by  the  Tosa  religious  painters  of  the 
thirteenth,  fusing  both  elements  into  a 
splendid  original  impression  of  the  ‘  God¬ 
dess  of  Music,’  so  perfectly  in  accord  with 
the  laws  of  low  relief  in  bronze  as  to  make 
this  work  the  Japanese  analogue  of  the 
purest  period  of  the  corresponding  fif¬ 
teenth-century  Italian  art.” 

Among  the  lacquer  work,  a  book-shelf 
executed  by  Shirayama  Fukumatsu  at¬ 
tracted  a  good  deal  of  attention.  It  was 
said  to  be  the  finest  product  of  the  last 
forty  years,  and  worthy  of  the  adulations 
bestowed  upon  it.  Even  a  Korin  or  Rit- 
suo  might  have  been  proud  of  its  author¬ 
ship. 


272 


JAPANESE  ART 


It  can  nevertheless  not  be  denied  that 
Japanese  art  has  entered  a  rather  unpro¬ 
ductive  period.  It  is  outside  of  our  time 
that  the  monuments  of  true  artistic  gran¬ 
deur  have  to  be  sought. 

All  the  constraint  of  rules  and  tradi¬ 
tions  have  been  required  to  make  the 
Japanese  mind  produce  the  artistic  beauty 
of  which  it  was  capable.  Now  these  rules 
and  traditions  have  considerably  lost  their 
value.  The  Japanese  have  found  in 
Europe  a  new  China,  and,  as  formerly 
they  imitated  the  art  of  the  Celestial 
Kingdom,  they  now  dream  of  adapting 
Western  art. 

But  it  is  the  introduction  of  the  ever- 
prevailing  and  all-pervading  spirit  of  com¬ 
mercialism  which  has  done  the  most 
harm  to  Japanese  art.  When  the  whole 
population  is  given  up  to  trade,  it  is  diffi¬ 
cult  for  the  small  voice  of  the  art  worker 
to  be  heard  above  the  roar  of  the  wheels 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  273 

of  Mammon’s  car,  as  it  heavily  grinds 
along.  Art  patronage  has  ceased,  and  the 
artists  and  artisans  find  it  impossible  to 
resist  the  tempting  offers  of  unscrupulous 
dealers  who  are  content  with  the  repro¬ 
duction  of  traditional  and  conventional 
ideas,  with  as  little  invention,  or  even 
ingenuity  in  the  matter  of  conception  and 
workmanship,  as  might  well  be.  And 
what  is  of  special  concern  in  this  matter 
is  the  fact  that  the  true  artist,  unwilling 
to  make  any  concessions,  finds  it  im¬ 
possible  to  compete  with  factory  work. 
Surely  the  artist,  like  every  other  work¬ 
man,  is  entitled  to  adequate  remuneration 
for  his  labour.  Under  the  present  condi¬ 
tion  of  things,  the  artist,  forced  to  work 
as  quickly  and  cheaply  as  possible,  cannot 
bring  his  individuality  into  play.  He  is 
obliged  to  compromise  and  transform  his 
studio  into  an  ordinary  workshop. 

John  LaFarge  has  sized  up  the  situa- 


JAPANESE  ART 


274 

tion  in  a  rather  vague,  but  sincere  and 
sympathetic  manner.  He  said  in  one  of 
his  “  Letters  from  Japan :  ” 

“  A  sadness  comes  upon  us  when  we  go 
to  see  some  of  the  modern  workers.  From 
them  we  depart  with  no  more  hope.  It 
is  like  some  puzzle,  like  having  listened 
to  an  argument  which  you  know  is  based 
on  some  inaccuracy  that  you  cannot  at  the 
moment  detect.  This  about  the  better, 
the  new  perfect  work,  if  I  can  call  it  per¬ 
fect,  means  only  high  finish  and  equal 
care.  But  the  individual  pieces  are  less 
and  less  individual ;  there  is  no  more  sur¬ 
prise.  The  means  or  methods  are  being 
carried  further  and  beyond ,  so  that  one 
asks  one’s  self,  1  Then  why  these  methods 
at  all  ?  ’  The  style  of  this  finer  modern 
work  is  poorer,  no  longer  connected  with 
the  greater  design,  as  if  ambition  was 
going  into  method  and  value  of  material. 
Just  how  far  this  is  owing  to  us  I  cannot 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  275 

tell,  but  the  market  is  largely  European, 
and  what  is  done  has  a  vague  appearance 
of  looking  less  and  less  out  of  place  among 
our  works,  and  has,  as  I  said  before,  less 
and  less  suggestion  of  individuality.  None 
of  it  would  ever  give  it  the  slight  shock  of 
an  exception,  none  of  it  would  have  the 
appearance  which  we  know  of  our  own 
best  work,  the  feeling  that  we  are  not 
going  to  see  more  of  it.  This  statement 
applies  to  the  best  work ;  the  more  com¬ 
mon  wrork  is  merely  a  degradation,  the 
using  of  some  part  of  the  methods ;  just 
enough  to  sell  it,  and  to  meet  some  easily 
defined  immediate  commercial  needs.  I 
saw  the  beginnings  years  ago,  and  I  can 
remember  one  of  our  great  New  York 
dealers  marking  on  his  samples  the  colours 
that  pleased  most  of  his  buyers,  who  them¬ 
selves  again  were  to  place  the  goods  in 
Oshkosh  or  Third  Avenue.  All  other 
colours  or  patterns  were  tabooed  in  his 


276 


JAPANESE  ART 


instructions  to  the  makers  in  Japan.  This 
was  the  rude  mechanism  of  the  change, 
the  coming  down  to  the  worst  public 
taste,  which  must  be  that  of  the  greatest 
number  at  any  given  time ;  for  commerce 
in  such  matters  is  of  the  moment :  the  sale 
of  the  wooden  nutmeg,  good  enough  until 
used.” 

Thus  theoretically  as  well  as  practically, 
it  will  be  best  for  Japan  to  hold  fast  to 
her  own  ideals  of  Asiatic  tradition.  It  is 
a  service  which  she  owes  to  humanity. 
She  is  the  last  custodian  of  ancient  Ori¬ 
ental  culture.  She  alone  has  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  seeing  through  the  materialistic 
shams  with  which  Western  civilizations 
delude  themselves,  and  of  appropriating 
only  such  material  as  may  help  to  rekindle 
her  native  flame. 

The  fusion  of  Eastern  and  Western 
ideas,  which  was  accomplished  two  thou¬ 
sand  years  ago  by  Alexander  the  Great, 


MODERN  JAPANESE  ART  2  7/ 

who  carried  the  borders  of  Greece  to 
India,  would  become  for  a  second  time 
possible,  and  create  in  both  hemispheres 
a  far  more  rounded  civilization  than  either 
has  ever  known. 

Through  her  temperament,  her  individ¬ 
uality,  her  deeper  insight  into  the  secrets 
of  the  East,  her  ready  designing  of  the 
powers  of  the  West,  and  more  than  all 
through  the  fact  that  she  enjoys  the 
privilege  of  being  a  pioneer,  it  may  have 
been  decreed  in  the  secret  council  cham¬ 
bers  of  destiny  that  on  her  shores  shall 
be  first  created  the  new  art  which  shall 
prevail  throughout  the  world  for  the  next 
thousand  years. 


THE  END. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Dr.  C.  Dresser:  Art  of  Decorative  Design.  Unity 
in  Variety,  as  Deduced  from  the  Vegetable  World. 
Art  and  Art  Industries  in  Japan. 

J.  J.  Jarvis  :  Glimpses  at  the  Art  of  Japan,  1876. 

Messrs.  Audsley  and  Bowen  :  Keramic  Art  of  Japan, 
1875-80. 

Thomas  Cutter  :  Grammar  of  Japanese  Ornament  and 
Design,  1881. 

M.  Franks:  Art  Handbook  for  the  Collection  in  the 
South  Kensington  Museum. 

Katalog  zur  Austellung  der  japanischen  Malerei  im  Ber¬ 
liner  Kunstgewerbemuseum,  1882. 

Alcock  :  Art  and  Art  Industries  in  Japan,  London, 
1878. 

L.  Gonse  :  L’Art  Japonais,  Paris,  1883. 

W.  Anderson  :  The  Pictorial  Arts  of  Japan,  London, 
1886. 

Brinckman  :  Kunst  and  Kunsthandwerk  in  Japan, 
Berlin,  1889. 


28o 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


W.  E.  Griffis  :  The  Mikado’s  Empire,  N.  Y.,  1870-74. 

Mitford  :  Tales  of  Old  Japan,  London,  1871. 

Miss  Bird:  Unbeaten  Tracks  in  japan,  London,  1880. 

Bayard  Taylor:  Japan  in  Our  Day,  N.  Y.,  1872. 

J.  J.  Rein  :  Japan  nach  Reisen  und  Studien  in  Auftrage 
der  K.  Preussishen  Regierung  dargestellt,  Leipsic, 
1881. 

E.  Satow  and  A.  S.  S.  Hawes  I  Handbook  for  Trav¬ 
ellers  in  Japan. 

Heinrich  Schliemann  :  Le  Chine  et  le  Japon,  Paris, 
1867. 

Adams:  History  of  Japan  from  the  Earliest  Time  to 
the  Present  Day,  London,  1875. 

Bower:  Japanese  Pottery,  Liverpool,  1892. 

Black:  Young  Japan,  London,  1880-81. 

Appert:  Ancien  Japon,  Tokyo,  1888. 

Metchnikew  :  L’Empire  Japonais,  Geneva,  1881. 

S.  Bing  :  Artistic  Japan. 

Bousquet  :  Le  Japon  de  nos  Jours,  Paris,  1877. 

Rosny  :  La  Religion  des  Japonais,  Paris,  1881. 

Chamberlain  :  The  Language,  Mythology,  and  Geo¬ 
graphical  Nomenclature  of  Japan,  viewed  in  the 
light  of  Aino  studies,  Tokyo,  1887.  Things 
Japanese,  London,  1892. 

E.  S.  Morse  :  Japanese  Houses  and  their  Surround¬ 
ings. 

Gilbertson  :  Japanese  Lacquer. 

E.  de  Goncourt:  Outomaro  et  Hokusai. 

Strange:  Japanese  Illustration. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


28l 


C.  Netto  and  G.  Wagener  :  Japanischer  Humor, 
Leipsic,  1901. 

G.  A.  Audsley  and  M.  Tomkinson  :  The  Art  Carvings 
of  Japan,  Ivory  and  Wood. 

Lafcadio  Hearn:  Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan, 
Boston,  1891. 

Annales  de  l’extreme  Orient,  Paris. 

Mittheilungen  der  Deutschen  Gesellschaft  fiir  Natur 
und  Volkerkunde  Ostasiens,  Yokohama  and  Berlin. 

Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan. 

Annuaires  de  la  Socidtd  des  Etudes  Japonaises,  Chi- 
noises,  etc.  Edited  by  Em.  Burnouf. 

Various  Articles  in  the  Japanese  Weekly  Mail. 


INDEX 


Aboshi,  216. 

Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  Tokyo, 
265,  268. 

Ainos,  Huts  of,  187,  188. 

Andersen,  161. 

Architecture  and  Sculpture, 
174-215. 

Arita,  225. 

Assakura,  Palace  of,  Siga, 
192. 

Atima,  27. 

Awata  Ware,  231. 

Bampo  Sen  Shio,  The,  216. 

Barrison  Sisters,  The,  166. 

Bashio,  96. 

Botticelli,  168. 

Bracquemont,  1 59. 

Buddhism,  12,  14,  15-19,  20, 
25,  26,  29,  30,  et  seq., 
37.  44.  56,  57.  et  seq., 
74,  187,  189,  229. 

Bunlei,  133. 

Buntcho,  1 1 2,  126,  127. 

Buretsu,  Emperor,  18. 

Burne-Jones,  165. 

Caricature,  Japanese,  Origin 
of,  see  Soja,  Taba. 

Cellini,  205. 

Chavannes,  Puvis  de,  163,  166. 


Chikamitsu,  96,  126. 

Chikudo,  Kishi,  270. 

Chinese  Art,  Influence  of,  12- 
2°.  39-45.  57.  61,  62, 
et  seq.,  71,  84. 

Cho  Densu,  64,  93. 

Death  of  Sakia,  65-66. 
Chokichi,  204. 

Chosuke,  229. 

Chosun,  Miyagawa,  124. 
Hundred  Poets,  125. 
Fans,  125. 

Mirror  of  Beauty,  125. 
Chwang,  Chow,  57. 

Collins,  Raphael,  260. 
Composition,  Difference  in, 
44-50,  83,  et  seq. 

Dai-Butsus,  193,  207-215. 

Of  Nara,  193,  208-209. 
Of  Kamakura,  197,  207- 
208,  210,  213. 

Of  Asakasa,  207. 

Of  Kyoto,  209-210. 
Daishi  (Apostle  of  Buddhism), 
18. 

Dayuyi,  Temple  of,  Tokyo, 
21. 

Degas,  163. 

De  Struve,  Mme.,  223. 

Deva  Kings,  Nara,  197. 


283 


284 


INDEX 


Deverell,  165. 

Diaz,  159. 

Dohachi,  227,  233. 

Donatello,  203,  207. 

Dresser,  Doctor  Christopher, 
179-181. 

Duran,  Carolus,  159. 

Exposition,  London,  of  Jap¬ 
anese  Art,  156-157. 
Exposition,  Paris,  of  Japanese 
Art,  157-158. 

Fenellosa,  Ernest  F.,  270-271. 
Feudal  Period,  37-59. 
Fortuny,  159. 

Fra  Angelico,  12. 

Fuko,  Matsumato,  256. 
Fukugawa  Shogunate,  VI., 
87-89.  93- 
Fukumatsu,  271. 

Fusiyama,  Mount,  138,  143, 
149,  262. 

Gaho,  Hashimato,  268-269. 
Gakurei,  122. 

Gakus,  27. 

Ganka,  133. 

Gekko,  Ogato,  270. 

Genroku  Period,  95-103. 
Giyoji,  229. 

Goncourt,  Edmond  de,  159. 
Goncourt,  Jules  de,  159. 
Gonse,  Louis,  192,  233. 
Goshen,  121-122. 

Gosho  Palace,  The,  at  Kyoto, 
r93- 

Goto  Family  (Bronze 
Workers),  241. 

Griffis,  William  Eliott,  2 lo¬ 
an,  246. 

Hakkei,  122. 

Hanzan,  250. 


Haronobu,  Suzuki,  112,  126, 
128-129. 

Hearn,  Lafcadio,  183,  198, 
211-213. 

Hideyary,  209. 

Hiroshige,  138-143,  164,  172, 

.257  ■ 

Views  of  Mount  Fusi¬ 
yama,  136. 

Go-jiu-sen,  Eki  Tokaido, 
139- 

Pictorial  Description  of 
Yedo,  141. 

Hiroshima,  204,  207. 

Hirotaka,  27. 

Hoitsu,  129-13 1. 

Hokkei,  257. 

Hokusai,  133,  143-153,  164, 
257. 

Mangwa,  143,  145. 
Hundred  Views  of  Fusi¬ 
yama,  143,  148. 

Serial,  Eleven  Waterfalls, 
147. 

Horiuyi,  Temple  of,  Nara,  17, 
192. 

Howard,  Mrs.  N.  Hopper, 
223. 

Hoyen,  Nishiyama,  122-124. 
Goddess  Kwannon,  122- 

123. 

Huneker,  J.  G.,  166. 

Imari  Ware,  235. 

India,  Art  of,  see  Buddhism. 
Isen,  256. 

Iticho,  Hanabusa,  108-110, 

124. 

Jacquemart,  Jules,  159. 
Japanese  Art,  Influence  of  on 
Western  Civilization,  1 54- 
173- 

Literature,  161. 


INDEX 


285 


Music,  161-162. 

Painting,  162-163. 
Jiogioko,  241. 

Josetsu,  64,  66. 

Kabenari,  18. 

Kaga  Ware,  225,  235. 
Kaikatei,  122. 

Kakemonos,  27. 

Kamakura. 

Temples  and  Pagoda  of, 

193- 

Dai-Butsu  of,  197. 
Kameizan,  Temple  of,  98-99. 
Kamejo,  204. 

Kanaoka,  19-28,  57,  64,  93. 
Decoration  of  Kyoto 
Palace,  19. 

Serial,  Ancient  Sages  and 
Poets,  20. 

God  Fudo,  21. 

Living  Pictures,  22-23. 
God  Dsijo,  23-24. 

Kano  School,  50,  60,  et  seq., 
69-72,92,  93,  94,  et  seq., 
109,  124-125,  133. 
Kassoaga,  Temple  of,  43-44. 
Kateda,  27. 

Kavenaka,  18. 

Keinen,  Imao,  256. 

Keisai,  241. 

Kenya,  250. 

Kenzan,  96,  105,  219,  232. 
Kinkakudi,  Palace  of,  Kyoto, 

r93- 

Kinroku,  112. 

Kioko,  122. 

Kiosai,  Kawanobe,  257. 
Kiyamasa,  in. 

Kiyomidsu  Ware,  231. 
Kiyomitsu,  126. 

Kiyonaga,  113,  131-133,  134. 
165. 

Kiyonobu,  in,  126. 


Kohitsu,  227. 

Kojiki,  The,  13. 

Kokau,  of  Nagasaki,  105. 
Komei,  Ichikawa,  270. 

Korean  Architecture,  187,  191, 
194. 

Korin,  96-97,  232,  249,  261. 
Koriusa,  113. 

Koto,  Yingo,  194. 

Kouroda,  Seiki,  260,  261-263. 
Koutani  Ware,  236. 

Kowun,  270. 

Koyetsu,  Hoyami,  247-248. 
Koyomitsu,  in. 

Kukai,  see  Daishi 
Kunimara,  119. 

Kunimasa,  119. 

Kunisada,  119,  133. 
Kuniyoshy,  126-127. 

Forty-seven  Ronins,  127. 
Kuokudo,  122. 

Kwannon,  Sea-goddess,  122, 
200,  270,  see  Hoyen. 
Kyoto,  18,  19,  28,  29-30,  56, 
57,  65,  66,  89,  90,  139, 
193,  207,  225,  231,  239, 
266. 

Kyoto  School,  111-118. 

Lacquer-work,  243-252. 

La  Farge,  John,  273. 

Laotze,  57. 

Legros,  Alphonse,  159. 
Lenzan,  122. 

Louis  XIV.,  1 54-1 55. 

Louis  XV.,  VI.,  95. 

Machida,  227. 

Maeterlinck,  Maurice,  161. 
Maida,  227. 

Makimono,  27. 

Masaccio,  12. 

Masashige,  General  Kusu- 
noke,  Statue  of,  261. 


286 


INDEX 


Massanobu,  Kano,  64,  67,  70- 
7i- 

Massanobu,  Okumura,  111. 
Massanobu,  Sotan,  64,  67. 
Matahei,  Iwasa,  104-109. 

Meiji  Bijutsou  Kwai  (Radical 
School),  259-261. 
Meitshyo,  64. 

Metal  Ware,  239-243. 
Minamoto,  43. 
Minamoto-no-Nabu,  18. 
Minenubo,  133. 

Ming  Blue  Ware,  229. 
Mitsunobu,  43,  46,  48. 
Mitsunoki,  43. 

Mitsuoky,  93. 

Mitsuyoshi,  43. 

Modern  Japanese  Art,  253- 
277. 

Mokubei,  233. 

Monet,  163. 

Monotobu,  Goddess  Kwan- 
non,  122. 

Morinaga,  133. 

Moro,  Husuyuma,  no. 
Morofusa,  133. 

Moronubu,  108,  109-III,  124. 
Motomitsu,  38,  43. 

Motonaga,  133. 

Motonubu,  82-84. 

Nagahura,  133. 

Nagasaki,  105. 

Nakoshi,  241. 

Naokiko,  Kumagaye,  270. 
Naonobu,  82,  94. 

Nara,  12,  13,  17,  21,  179,  193, 
197,  266. 

Nieinai,  Temple  of,  Kyoto,  21. 
Nikawa,  in. 

Nikko,  Pagoda  of,  180-183, 
193- 

Temple  of,  83. 

Ninogawa,  227. 


Ninsei,  96,  219,  231-232. 
Nobuzane,  43. 

Oado,  105. 

Obaku,  Temple  of,  at  Oyi,  193. 
Okakura,  265-266. 

Oki  Ware,  234. 

Okyo,  97-103,  122,  172. 
Omura  Ware,  231. 

One  Thousand  Leaves,  Col¬ 
lection  of,  135. 

Oriba  Ware,  234. 

Ornamental  Arts,  216-252. 
Osaka,  Castle  of,  193. 

Outomaro,  134-139. 

Serial,  Silk-worms,  136. 
Forty-seven  Ronins,  137. 
Owari,  225,  230. 

Pottery,  224-238. 

Raku  Ware,  230. 

Realistic  Movement  (Ukio-ye 
School),  103-153. 
Religious  School,  18,  56,  65, 

.  74‘ 

Renaissance,  The,  60-103. 
Ritsuo,  Ogawa,  96,  205-206, 
219,  248-249. 

Robbia,  Luca  della,  203. 
Rokubei,  227,  233. 

Saitchiso,  236. 

Saitoshy,  62. 

Sanda  Seiji  Ware,  234. 
Satsuma,  157,  225,  236-237. 
Sauraku,  82. 

Segin,  44. 

Seifu,  241. 

Seimin,  204,  241. 

Seisen,  122. 

Seitei,  Watanabe,  270. 
Sekighara,  Battle  of,  88. 


INDEX 


287 


Sessei,  Okasaki,  270. 

Bronze  relief  of  Goddess 
Benten,  271,  see  illus¬ 
tration. 

Sesshin,  67-72. 

Settan,  140. 

Shiba,  Temple  of,  Nikko,  195. 
Shiba,  Temple  of,  Tokyo,  29. 
Shibukohan,  105. 

Shigenaga,  133. 

Shighemassa,  113. 

Shigenaga,  Nishimura,  in. 
Shijo  School,  see  also  Okyo, 
97,  121. 

Shinto  Temples,  Architecture 
of,  187-189. 

At  Kyoto,  193. 

At  Nikko,  193. 
Shioukada,  94-95. 

Shioukai,  233. 

Shohizan,  122. 

Shojo,  see  Shioukada. 
Shonsoi,  234. 

Shosen,  256. 

Shosizan,  133. 

Showo-Shigariki  Wares,  228. 
Shubun,  64,  66-67. 
Shunchosai,  139-140,  165. 
Shunsho,  113. 

Silver  Temple,  The,  Kyoto, 
60. 

Skarbina,  163. 

Soja,  Taba,  43,  92. 

Sojo  Family  (Bronze 
Workers),  241. 

Sojo,  Ono,  44. 

Somaw  Ware,  234. 

Somin,  96,  241. 

Sosen,  121. 

Soukenobu,  Nishikawa,  1 12, 
126,  127-128,  134. 
Soumiyoshi,  44. 

Steinlen,  163. 

Stevens,  Alfred,  159. 


Strudwick,  165. 

Suki,  17. 

Suminawa,  28. 

Taga,  Castle  of,  193. 

Taigado,  133. 

Takatshika,  43. 

Takanobu,  82,  94. 

Tamehissa,  43. 

Tanemura,  227. 

Tanyu,  82,  94. 

Taoun,  204,  241. 

Tchikonobu,  133. 

Tchikuden,  1 29-130. 
Tchiokuvan,  82. 

Tchiorakouyi,  Temple  of, 
Omi,  28. 

Tchoin  Temple  at  Kyoto,  193. 
Teisan,  126. 

Temmu,  194. 

Tenno,  Jimmu,  194. 

Tetsusan,  122. 

Tissot,  159. 

Tiyo,  241. 

Todaji,  Temple  of,  178. 
Tokaido,  Fifty-three  Stations 
of,  Views  of,  see 
Hiroshige. 

Tokugawa,  Nikko,  195. 
Tokusai,  241. 

Tokyo,  21,  29,  89,  103,  133, 
137,  148,  184,  265,  266. 
Torei,  133. 

Tosa  School,  see  Yamoto- 
Tosa  School. 

Toshiro,  230. 

Tosu,  Watanobe,  251. 
Totsugen,  127. 

Toyohami,  119. 

Toyoharu,  119. 

Toyohiro,  138. 

Toyokuni,  119. 

Toyokusi,  126. 

Toyonabou,  hi. 


288 


INDEX 


Toyoshiri,  119. 

Tsoutenaka,  43. 

Tsunenobu,  133. 

Turgenjew,  161. 

Tyron,  D.  W.,  163. 

Ukio-ye  School,  50,  109,  et  seq., 
1 32>  1 33>  et  se1- >  I4°~ 
J53- 

Verga,  161. 

Wada,  Eisaku,  261. 

Wakai,  The,  Collection  of 
Pottery,  226-227. 

Weltausstellung,  Vienna,  157- 
158. 

Western  Pictorial  Art,  In¬ 
fluence  of,  104,  et  seq. 

Whistler,  159,  162,  172. 

Wood  Engraving,  no,  et  seq., 
see  Ukio-ye  School. 

World’s  Fair,  Chicago,  266- 
271. 

Wutaotz,  67. 

Yamataka,  266. 

Yamoto-Tosa  School,  38,  et 


seq.,  48,  50,  51,  et  seq., 
64-67,  93,  1 13,  124,  see 
Motomitsu. 

Yashiki,  The,  186. 

Yasunobu,  see  Yeishi. 

Yedo,  89,  103,  133,  137,  139, 
141. 

Yedoreko,  Imperial  School 
of,  27. 

Yeiraku,  227,  232-233. 

Yeiri,  1 19. 

Yeisen,  119. 

Yeishi,  82,  94,  119. 

Yeizan,  119. 

Yeitoku,  82. 

Yeto,  Genjiro,  262-263. 

Yosai,  Kikuchi,  256,  257-259. 

Yosen,  121. 

Yoshiwara,  136,  145. 

Yuriaku,  Emperor,  17. 

Yyeyosu,  Takigawa,  88. 

Zaitu,  122. 

Zeshin,  250,  251,  265. 

Zingaro,  Hidari,  96,  184,  193, 
204. 

Zola,  159. 


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